A DRINK driver from North Wales who got behind the wheel while almost four times the legal limit has been spared immediate imprisonment.

This is despite the facts that he has previous for drink driving and that he smashed into street furniture while intoxicated.

Samuel Connop was also uncooperative with police looking to ascertain his alcohol level through a test, before the worrying extent of his alcohol intake was revealed.

The 30-year-old was subsequently charged with drink driving, driving without due care and attention, failing to stop after an accident and failing to co-operate with a preliminary test

He appeared to be sentenced at Warrington Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, January 12, where he was told his custodial sentence could be suspended.

Eddie Handley, prosecuting, explained to the court how the offences occurred on December 7 last month.

On that day, the defendant drove a mechanically propelled vehicle, namely an Alfa Romeo 147, on Cotswold Road in Orford without due care and attention.

As a result, he was involved in a crash in which street furniture was damaged and failed to stop afterwards.

After coming to the attention of police, Connop failed, without reasonable excuse, to co-operate with a preliminary breath test to check for drink driving.

One was conducted however, and he produced a reading of 136 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.

This is well in excess of the prescribed legal limit of 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath, with Connop being close to four times that limit.

Before sentencing, magistrates spoke of how the only sentence that they could justify was a custodial one, due to the severity of the case.

They highlighted that this was the defendant’s third conviction for drink driving and referenced the exceptionally high beath test reading.

However, taking his guilty pleas into account, they decided that the custodial sentence could be suspended after deeming him ‘capable of being rehabilitated’.

Connop, of Bylchau in Conwy county, was sentenced to 12 weeks in prison suspended for 18 months.

He was also disqualified from driving for 60 months and ordered to complete 25 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

In addition, he was told by magistrates that he must pay costs to the Crown Prosecution Service of £120 and a surcharge to fund victim services of £154.