Drunk driver speeds home, asks for peanut butter

Drunk driver speeds home, asks for peanut butter
Published on Feb 15, 2016, 8:57 am AST
By Nikita Braxton



A DRUNK DRIVER who almost crashed into a police vehicle twice as he sped to his home shouting for someone to bring him the peanut butter, appeared in court last Friday.

Stanley Andrews, 53, of Circle Drive, Embacadere, entered guilty pleas to driving in a dangerous manner and failing to give a sample of his breath for testing during a breathalyser test.

The peanut butter, the Express was told, may have been used to attempt to alter the results of breathalyer tests.

Andrews will spend the next three months educating himself about the effects of alcohol before he is sentenced for the offences.

San Fernando Traffic Court Magistrate Natalie Diop heard that at 11 a.m. on February 7, Constable Ramcharan was on patrol at Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando when he saw a white Nissan B14 car swerving in the road.

When the officer attempted to stop the car by flashing the lights and sounding the siren of the marked police vehicle, the driver turned his car around and sped off.

Police prosecutor Sgt Raymond Dookhoo said the officer chased the car and tried to intercept it, but the car’s driver “pulled sharply to the right, almost colliding with the police vehicle”.

On the third attempt to stop the car, the Nissan B-14 again almost crashed into the police vehicle.

Ramcharan stopped the patrol car, say the head into the Embacadere Housing Development, San Fernando and followed. Ramcharan saw the vehicle in an open yard. The officer approached and ordered the driver out of the car.

“The defendant appeared to have locked the driver’s side door, jumped over to the passenger side, exited and ran to a nearby house shouting ‘I want peanut butter. Bring some peanut butter for me’. The defendant was arrested and pulled from his house,” said Dookhoo.

Andrews admitted to the police that he had consumed alcohol. He said he had no medical condition to prevent the breathalyser tests from being done, but after it was demonstrated to him, he said: “Officer, I not doing any test.”

When the officer tried to take a sample of his breath, the machine recorded an insufficient flow. The officer told Andrews he believed he was wilfully withholding his breath.

Constable Ramcharan charged him that at Circle Drive, Broadway, San Fernando, he failed without reasonable cause to provide a specimen of his breath for testing. Andrews was also charged with driving in a manner dangerous to the public at Lady Hailes Avenue, San Fernando.

Before Diop, defence attorney Ainsley Lucky said his client’s actions were ”propelled by fear (and) fear fuelled by alcohol gave him Dutch courage to have done these wild antics”.

He also said his client panicked and later realised that his acts were “foolhardy”.

Andrews, he said, had two previous convictions of a similar nature, dated July and December 2015.

Lucky said the father of two had been in custody for seven days and entered guilty pleas to the offence at his first court appearance last Monday.

On that day Andrews was placed on $20,000 bail but was unsuccessful in posting it. Last Friday he was taken by police officers to the courthouse in handcuffs.

Diop allowed the bail to continue and, on the attorney’s request, granted Andrews cash alternative bail of $10,000.

Lucky asked for sentencing to be deferred for his client to attend Alcoholics Anonymous sessions over the next three months. He said this will assist in his client being educated to avoid further consumption of alcohol.

Diop told him to make the best use of his time as she adjourned the matter to March 3. The matter will again be called on April 8.