Jersey Unreported Judgments

Inferior Number Sentencing - Motoring

[2021]JRC066

Royal Court

(Samedi)

9 March 2021

Before     :

T. J. Le Cocq, Esq., Bailiff, and Jurats Ramsden and Averty

The Attorney General

-v-

Paul Anthony Jeffroy

Sentencing by the Inferior Number of the Royal Court, following a guilty plea to the following charges:

2 counts of:	Driving a motor vehicle with an alcohol concentration above the prescribed limit, contrary to Article 28(1)(a) of the Road Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956 (Count 1 and Count 4).
1 count of:	Failing to notify change of address, contrary to Article 11(2) of the Motor Vehicle Registration (Jersey) Law 1993 (Count 2).
1 count of:	Driving a vehicle dangerously, contrary to Article 22(1) of the Road Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956 (Count 3).

Age:  40. 

Plea: Guilty. 

Details of Offence:

At around 3pm on 19^th November, 2019, a member of the public telephoned the police to report a male in a white van, decanting vodka into a coke bottle.  He alighted from the van temporarily and was seen to be clearly intoxicated by the witness.  He then got back into the van and drove off.  The Police attended at the registered address for that vehicle.  This was not the correct address and on attending at the defendant's address, the van was parked outside, the engine still warm and the defendant was found asleep on the sofa.  A sample of breath was taken at 8pm and the blood alcohol reading was 160 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath.

 

On 20^th January, 2020, at around 3pm the defendant was driving his van south along La Grande Route Des Sablons.  The defendant purposely crossed the opposite carriageway and crashed into a granite wall in an attempted suicide.  Children had been observed walking on the pavements nearby.  At 4:30pm the defendant gave a sample of breath where the alcohol concentration was 74 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath.  There was structural damage to the granite wall which formed part of the outside wall of a property causing nearly £19,000 in damage.

Details of Mitigation:

Guilty pleas, albeit a late plea in respect of Count 1

Previous Convictions:

Previous conviction for drink driving in 2008.

Conclusions:

Count 1:	8 months' imprisonment, and 3 years' disqualification from driving.
Count 2:	No separate penalty.
Count 3:	12 months' imprisonment, consecutive to Count 1, and 4 years' disqualification from driving, concurrent.
Count 4:	6 months' imprisonment, concurrent to Count 3, and 3 years' disqualification from driving, concurrent.

Total:  20 months' imprisonment, and 4 years' disqualification from driving.

Compensation Order sought pursuant to Article 2 of the Criminal Justice (Compensation Orders) (Jersey) Law 1994 in the sum of £372.38. 

Sentence and Observations of Court:

Count 1:	7 months' imprisonment and 3 years disqualification from driving.
Count 2:	No separate penalty.
Count 3:	9 months' imprisonment, consecutive to Count 1, and 4 years' disqualification from driving.
Count 4:	5 months' imprisonment, concurrent to Count 3, and 3 years' disqualification from driving, concurrent.

Total:  16 months' imprisonment and 4 years' disqualification from driving.

Compensation Order made in the sum of £372.38 with 24 months to pay.

C. R. Baglin Esq., Crown Advocate.

Advocate A. E. Binnie for the Defendant.

JUDGMENT

THE BAILIFF:

1.        You are to be sentenced for three separate counts under the Road Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956 and one relating to the Motor Vehicle Registration (Jersey) Law 1993.  The three road traffic offences are by far the most serious.

2.        On 19^th November, 2019, a member of the public telephoned the police having witnessed you behind the wheel of a parked white van outside your address decanting, so the witness thought, what appeared to be two half bottles of vodka into a Coke bottle.  You appeared, so the witness said, to be barely able to stand when you left the vehicle.  The police, acting on that information, attended at your address subsequently where you were found to be asleep and on being woken up you failed a road side breathalyser test and when you were subsequently tested at police headquarters there was a reading of 160 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limited being 35 micrograms.

3.        On 20^th January, 2020, again whilst in a state of intoxication with 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, being almost twice the legal limit, you appear to deliberately have driven your van into a wall indicating after the event that it was your intention to kill yourself.

4.        You originally denied the earlier offending saying that you wished to advance a "hip flask" defence to the effect that you were only over the limit because of the alcohol you had consumed after you had stopped driving.  This defence you subsequently abandoned and indeed we have heard from your counsel, which we accept, the reasons why you offered that defence in the first place.

5.        You do not have a clean criminal record, but we note the most recent offending was in 2010 and there has been some period in your life without reoffending.  We have considered the contents of the Social Enquiry Report and the Psychological Report and the features that they point to in your history and the challenges that you have faced.  We also accept that you have intense and prolonged emotional and behavioural difficulties and we note the effect of the head injuries that you suffered in 2006.  You appear however, to be at material risk of reoffending which the Social Enquiry Report characterises as moderate.

6.        We have read with care the references provided on your behalf which speak very well of you indeed and the work reference that we have seen clearly shows us that you are capable of behaving responsibly and we have considered your letter of remorse which we take to be genuine.

7.        We do not however disagree with the approach of the Crown in this matter in identifying by reference to the Magistrate's Court Sentencing Court Guidelines the appropriate band to place this offending in and the appropriate range for sentence.  We are concerned that there would have been school traffic and children around and about at the time of the first offending which makes the matter more serious and a similar consideration applies in the second drink driving offending which is of course exacerbated by the fact that you quite deliberately drove you vehicle into a wall.  This was quite clearly a deliberate disregard for the safety of others, and it resulted in a serious collision causing damage to the property of an innocent party.

8.        Looking at all the features of this case we cannot, after anxious consideration, find exceptional circumstances that allows us to impose a non-custodial sentence.  We have however, already referred to the mitigation available to you by way of your references and there is of course the benefit of your guilty plea although it was somewhat late for Count 1.  Your record, whilst not an aggravating feature in this case in our view, similarly provides you with no mitigation.  Although we cannot deal with this matter on a non-custodial basis because of its seriousness we do not think the Crown has made sufficient allowance for the other material mitigation available to you nor indeed for the not guilty pleas.  In our view the correct sentences are as follows.

9.        Count 1, 7 months' imprisonment; Count 3, 9 months' imprisonment, consecutive; Count 4, 5 months' imprisonment, concurrent to Count 3 and Count 2, no separate penalty.  This makes a total of 16 months' imprisonment.

10.      We move also to a sentence of 4 years' disqualification from driving.

11.      We very much hope that you will avail yourself of all the help available to you whilst you are serving your sentence.

12.      On the matter of compensation, we note that the amount is not queried, and we allow 24 months to make that payment.

13.      We make no order for costs and as requested we disclose Dr Briggs' report. 

Authorities

Road Traffic (Jersey) Law 1956. 

Motor Vehicle Registration (Jersey) Law 1993. 

Magistrate's Court Sentencing Guidelines.

Criminal Justice (Compensation Orders) (Jersey) Law 1994

AG v Le Goff [2020] JRC 033