Eight years off the roads after repeat offences

Saturday 22 February 2020

After drinking eight pints in a west coast bar, a serial drink driver walked to his car and immediately reversed into the vehicle behind his.

Marc Paul Nicholls, 39, has been sent to prison for 10 weeks after posting a reading of 85 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Nicholls has also been taken off the roads for eight years after committing his third serious drink drive offences in just 11 years. 

The latest incident took place at around 22:00 on Sunday 19 January. Nicholls left the Grandes Rocques Bar and Bistro and set off to drive home. However, he got no further than the car park, reversing twice into the vehicle behind him. 

Guernsey Police were called and when the officers got there they noticed that Nicholls smelt of alcohol and appeared drunk. 

He admitted to drinking alcohol and when tested the lowest reading he recorded was 84 micrograms.

Duty Advocate Claire Tee, acting for Nicholls, said it was "clearly a serious offence and the defendant knows that”.

Fortunately there was no damage to the other vehicle and he had not made it out onto the public highway.

"Clearly alcohol is a problem for him," she said. 

#Ruin2020In4Words

I'll drink and drive pic.twitter.com/ZOfvmmG98Q

— Guernsey Police (@GuernseyPolice) January 8, 2020

Pictured: Guernsey Police has been running a campaign to try to get people to think about the consequences of drink driving. 

It is Nicholls' third conviction for drink driving; the first in Bexley, London in May 2009, the second in Guernsey Magistrates’ Court in February 2013, when he was taken off the roads for five years, and this latest charge. 

Judge Graeme McKerrell said his hands were "utterly and totally tied" by the repeat offences. 

Nicholls had every intention to drive home, despite knowing the consequences of doing so, having been locked up and banned from driving previously.

"You are lucky you are in this court and not the Royal Court where the sentencing powers are higher," he told him. 

Judge McKerrell said the eight year ban would likely mean that Nicholls is never able to get back on the roads. 

"I think you will struggle to find any insurance company willing to insure you with three drink driving convictions on your record," he concluded.