A Colchester businessman has been spared prison after driving while three-and-a-half times over the legal drink-drive limit.

Carl Martin, 42, was warned by his psychiatrist he should not drive on the evening of the offence, but he got behind the wheel anyway, Colchester Magistrates' Court heard yesterday

The Colchester Fuel Injection managing director was stopped by police 400 yards from his home in Church Road, Elmstead Market, on May 10. He admitted drink-driving

District Judge David Cooper told the father-of-two: "You had a total disregard for the safety of the public and I find it amazing that just prior, you had actually been warned by your psychiatrist not to drive."

Kim Jenkins, mitigating, said the offence was the result of a culmination of two events.

Martin's father died last year and in March he was involved in a fatal accident, she said. There is no suggestion he was at fault in the fatal accident.

She added: "He fully accepts the seriousness of his position and has not driven since May 10."

Martin was fined £3,000, with £70 costs, given a three-month jail sentence, suspended for a year and banned from driving for five years

Published Friday July 9, 2004

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