Latvian butcher arrested for drink driving in Brierfield was three times limit court told

Dmitrrijs Cvetikovs (38) was swearing and appeared to be disrupting the process. He had been stopped in his Mercedes because of the speed he had been driving at.

Burnley magistrates were told how Cvetikovs had been taken to the police station after a roadside test at 1.10am showed 107 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

The Morrisons' butcher had told officers he spoke Latvian, then Russian but when a Russian interpreter was obtained on the phone, he said he didn't speak that language. He continually said he didn't understand.

Mr Andrew Robinson, prosecuting, said the defendant did agree to provide a breath sample at the police station but on checking the record produced by the device it said no breath flow was detected.

Mr Robinson said: "His roadside reading showed a high level of impairment."

The defendant, who wasn't insured, had no previous convictions.

A probation officer who interviewed the defendant said Cvetikovs told her he had had a friend visiting him and they spent a number of hours drinking beer. She said:"He could feel the effects of the alcohol, but he wasn't very drunk."

He decided to drive to the shop when his friend asked him to get some cigarettes.

The officer said:"He fully accepts this is the wrong decision to make and seeks to assure the courts this is not a mistake he will be making again.

"He asks that I pass his apologies to the court."

Cvetikovs, who has lived in this country for about seven years, admitted failing to provide a specimen for analysis and having no insurance on Cross Street, Brierfield, on Tuesday, January 29th.

The defendant, who lives in Cross Street, was given a 12-month community order, with 160 hours unpaid work and was banned for 20 months. The defendant must pay £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.

Bench chairman Mrs Lynne Kemp told Cvetikovs:" We believe that you were deliberately obstructive at the police station."