From the Dover Express, 31 January 2002.

No jail for driver. Crashed into car after drink binge.

A MAN who crashed his car in Dover while more than three times the legal drink driving limit narrowly escaped being jailed last week.

Business consultant Malcolm Thomson, 56, admitted the offence after a binge with friends who were returning to their native New Zealand.

Australian Thomson was on his way to a meeting in Calais the following morning and claimed he did not know he was still over the limit.

His N-reg Kia mounted a traffic island on the A2 and struck another car, writing both off. No one was hurt.

Prosecuting, Alex Scott-Phillips, said: “Mr Thomson is a man of previous good character.”

Defending, Darren Weir, accepted the bench would be considering a custodial sentence but pleaded for leniency with his previous good character and his ability to carry on with his job without a licence as mitigating factors.

He told the court: “He drank and drove and he was foolish and now he has to pay the price.”

He said his client was in a stable 15 year relationship and worked in the garden irrigation business earning up to £24,000 per year, depending on the stability of the market.

The court heard he lost one contract after the terrorist outrage in the US on September 11.

Thomson, of Ospringe, near Paversham, had been on his way to France with a view to winning new work for European war graveyards when the offence was committed.

In addition to receiving a three year ban, he was given a 240 hour punishment order and ordered to pay £55 costs.

He was offered the opportunity to undertake a drink driving rehabilitation course which, if successful, could reduce his ban by nine months.