IPSWICH: A drink-driver who hit stationary cars while driving at nearly three times the legal limit has spent Christmas in prison.

Kristaps Filipovs, of Sirdar Road, Ipswich, was jailed at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court for a total of 18 weeks after admitting driving with excess alcohol.

Magistrates imprisoned the 26-year-old after hearing he committed the offence while in breach of an 18-week suspended prison term for possession of a knife.

Filipovs was arrested on December 9 after his silver Audi collided with several parked vehicles in Alan Road, Ipswich. The initial reports to police were that three or four cars were damaged during the collisions.

When he was breath-tested on an intoximeter after his arrest, it showed the level of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath was 97 microgrammes. The legal limit is 35mcgs.

Magistrates jailed Filipovs for four weeks for the drink-driving offence and banned him from driving for 24 months.

However, he was given a further 14-week prison term to run consecutively for breaching his earlier suspended sentence.

Police arrested Filipovs in Prospect Road, Ipswich, on August 16 and charged him with possession of a knife.

At the time it was said officers were called to a report of a female being assaulted.

When they arrived Filipovs was seen with a kitchen knife, which he dropped after being told to by an officer with a Taser.

Another drink-driver to lose his licence this Christmas was Anatoli Troskov, of Rectory Road, Ipswich, who was banned from driving for 18 months after pleading guilty to driving with excess alcohol.

The 52-year-old was stopped on Grundisburgh Road, Tuddenham St Mary, on December 19.

A breath test found Troskov had 60 mcgs of alcohol in 100ml of breath.

In addition to his driving ban, Troskov was fined �250.

n Has your life been affected by a drink-driver? E-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk or write to Star Letters, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN.