A PROPERTY developer with debts of £400,000 is today banned from the road after being caught drink driving twice within 24 hours - bringing him to his FOURTH conviction for the crime.
A PROPERTY developer with debts of £400,000 is today banned from the road after being caught drink driving twice within 24 hours - bringing him to his FOURTH conviction for the crime.
Despite this Leslie Shaun Crossley, 51, has avoided a jail sentence, instead being given concurrent 16 week prison sentences, suspended for 18 months being banned from driving for three years.
He was also ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work, to undergo a drink-impaired drivers' programme and given a 12 month supervision requirement. He will also have to pay £87 costs.
Magistrates heard how Crossley was caught by police in Garrison Lane, Felixstowe, in the early hours of October 14 last year.
Crossley, of Orwell Road, Felixstowe, had 71 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath when he was stopped just after midnight.
He was arrested, charged and bailed for drink driving.
But at about 11.45pm on the same day, Crossley was caught again by police.
This time he was in his Shogun in Orwell Road and was found to have 59 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. He was charged once again and remanded in custody.
He had previously been convicted of driving with excess alcohol in 1997 and 2000.
South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court heard that Crossley had taken on heavy loans from banks and from his father to fund a scheme to develop property which would become accommodation for students at University Campus Suffolk.
Crossley's father feared that he has lost the money he lent his son and has suffered a heart attack, the court heard.
Sally Westwood, chairman of the bench, said: “These are very serious offences. The aggravating features are that you have committed previous similar offences and that you were on bail when the last offence happened.”
Crossley, had admitted both charges of driving with excess alchohol at an earlier hearing.
What's the best way to stop people drink driving? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk
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