A SHAME-faced drink-driver who turned himself in after smashing a fence is today beginning a community sentence.

A SHAME-faced drink-driver who turned himself in after smashing a fence is today beginning a community sentence.

Mark Mateer, 24, said he felt terrible about his crime and had bought flowers and chocolates for the woman whose garden he had driven into in the early hours of October 13.

Mateer, of Lloyd Avenue, Shotley Gate, pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance when he appeared at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court.

Stephen Colman, prosecuting, told the court that a police officer had been on duty in Shotley at around 3.20am when he came across soil and other debris in the road outside a cottage.

Mr Colman said: “At that point Mr Mateer staggered up to him and said 'I'm guilty, take me away. I've been drinking and driving. I missed the corner and I crashed it (the car)'.”

Mateer had been driving his Renault Clio when he lost control of the car and ended up in the front garden of a woman's home.

Mateer was breathalysed and was found to have 106mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, around three times the legal limit of 35mcg.

Mateer, who has since lost his job working for a sales company, told the court: “I got her some flowers and chocolates and I'm going to try to fix the fence.”

After pleading guilty to the offences, Mateer also admitted a breech of a conditional discharge imposed on him in May after he became verbally aggressive with police officers outside an Ipswich nightclub.

Mateer was punished with a 12-month community order including 150 hours of unpaid work and a six-week curfew meaning he can not leave his home between 8pm and 6am.

He was also disqualified from driving for 28 months and ordered to pay £43 in costs.

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