A DRUNK Ipswich kerb crawler has today been left embarrassed and without a driving licence.Jason Saunders, of Hawk End Lane, Elmswell, pleaded guilty to picking up a prostitute in Handford Road and driving her while over the limit to near the bingo centre in Ranelagh Road.

A DRUNK Ipswich kerb crawler has today been left embarrassed and without a driving licence.

Jason Saunders, of Hawk End Lane, Elmswell, pleaded guilty to picking up a prostitute in Handford Road and driving her while over the limit to near the bingo centre in Ranelagh Road.

Police found the scaffolder in his silver Mercedes with his trousers and underwear down and the prostitute sitting in the passenger seat next to him.

Gareth Davies, prosecuting at South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court, said 41 micrograms of alcohol were found in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

He said: “Officers were on duty in the red-light area of Ipswich at 11.30pm on July 21 when the Mercedes was seen to stop in Handford Road.

“The place is bristling with CCTV and there is enough publicity about it that any man who goes there will inevitably end up in court.”

Saunders, 37, said he had only drunk three glasses of vodka and the loss of his licence would cause difficulties for his scaffolding business.

He said: “I am very embarrassed.”

District Judge David Cooper sentenced Saunders to a four-month curfew with an electronic tag preventing him from leaving his home between 10pm and 6am daily.

He was also fined £700 and told to pay £70 towards court costs.

Saunders was disqualified from driving for a year and told it could be reduced to nine months if he took a driver's rehabilitation course.

What do you think about the police blitz on kerb crawlers? Write to Your Letters, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich, IP4 1AN, or e-mail eveningstarletters@eveningstar.co.uk.

A SENIOR policeman leading Ipswich's fight against street prostitution today welcomed the tough sentence handed to kerb crawler Jason Saunders.

Suffolk police Superintendent Alan Caton said a four month curfew for the combined offences of kerb crawling and drink driving showed that Suffolk's courts were backing police in their bid to rid Ipswich of its street prostitution problem.

He said: “The support of the courts is very welcome. This sentence should send a very strong message.”

More than 70 men have now been arrested in connection with kerb crawling and soliciting prostitutes in Ipswich since Suffolk police launched its crackdown on the street vice trade at the beginning of March.

The efforts followed the deaths of sex workers Tania Nicol, Gemma Adams, Annette Nicholls, Anneli Alderton and Paula Clennell whose bodies were found dumped on the outskirts of Ipswich in December last year.

All five women had been sex workers in Ipswich's red-light district.