A carer, a security guard and an unemployed man whose provisional driving licence had expired were among the drink drivers caught by police in their annual Christmas crackdown in Brighton and Hove.
All three pleaded guilty to drink driving and have been banned from the road as scores of cases from December come before the courts.
Security guard Ian Simpson was stopped by police on the A259, in Marine Drive, Rottingdean, on Thursday 15 December in a black Vauxhall Corsa.
He was breathalysed and found to have 86 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.
At Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 12 January, Simpson, 48, a security guard, of Church Street, Littlehampton, admitted drink driving.
He was banned from the road for 17 months, fined £120 and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £48 victim surcharge, making £253 in total.
Police were called when a scooter rider Durvesh Kearns, 25, crashed in Goldstone Road, Hove, on Friday 16 December.
Kearns had crashed his red Sym Jet into another vehicle. He was breathalysed and found to have 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The 25-year-old social care assistant, of Shirley Street, Hove, and West End Way, Lancing, also appeared before Brighton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 12 January.
He admitted drink-driving and was banned for 17 months, fined £250 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £100 victim surcharge, making £435 in all.
Sussex Police said that Benjamin Smeaton was stopped by officers at about 9pm on Monday 12 December in Richmond Place, Brighton.
Smeaton, 33, unemployed, of Dyke Road Drive, Brighton, was driving a a white Mitsubishi Canter van although his provisional driving licence had expired and had no valid insurance.
He was breathalysed and found to have 43 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
At Brighton Magistrates’ Court on 12 January, Smeaton admitted drink driving, driving with no insurance and driving unlicensed.
He was banned for a year, fined £440 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £264 victim surcharge, making £789 in total.
Sussex Police arrested 233 people for drink and drug driving and related offences during the annual month-long crackdown in December – part of a national campaign called Operation Limit.
Of the 233 arrests, 49 drivers were held in the Brighton and Hove area – 34 of them in Brighton, 14 in Hove and one in Falmer.
Sussex Police said: “Those convicted and disqualified for their offences are being named to raise awareness of the issue and to provide a deterrent to other motorists from getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.
“Meanwhile, our public campaign, Drink Driving: Together We Can Stop It, continues to highlight the need for everyone to prevent, persuade and report drink drivers to the police.”
Superintendent Rachel Glenton, from the force’s Roads Policing Unit, said: “Our officers are determined to catch offenders on our roads before they cause serious harm to themselves or other road users.
“We patrol the county’s roads 24/7, every day of the year, and these results show that while we can’t be everywhere, we could be anywhere.”
