Drink driver escapes jail sentence

10:24am Friday 14th September 2001

A 19-YEAR-OLD Gravesend man was lucky to avoid a prison sentence after being caught driving while banned.

After taking account of his guilty plea, magistrates said Scott Webster should serve the maximum community sentence available.

He was ordered to do 240 hours community service for driving while disqualified and fined £300 with £50 costs for driving without insurance. He was also given six penalty points.

Dartford Magistrates' Court heard Webster, of Harmer Street, had been banned for 12 months at the beginning of August for drink driving and had a previous conviction for driving without insurance.

He was stopped by police on August 17, driving a white E-reg Ford Fiesta along Dover Road, in Northfleet.

Magistrate William Abbott told Webster he was an “extremely lucky young man to escape a custodial sentence”.

He added: “You have an appalling record of driving which you have got in such a very short time.

“Knowing the area as I do, I know you could have walked. You did not have to drive.”

Webster was banned for six months which will run alongside the current ban.