Forty-four people were arrested on suspicion of drink driving or driving under the influence of drugs in Brighton and Hove during the month-long Christmas and new year crackdown, Sussex Police said yesterday (Monday 11 January).
The 44 arrests accounted for more than 20 per cent or one in five of suspected drink and drug drivers arrested by the force from Tuesday 1 December to Friday 1 January.
And the 212 arrests included 22 people from Brighton and Hove – or more than 10 per cent or one in ten of the total.
Recent Brighton cases before the courts include Louis Rix-Martin, 36, of Westdene Drive, Brighton, who has banned for three years and fined £600 for driving after having cannabis.
It is not the first time that Rix-Martin has been banned for drug driving. He was given a 17-month ban seven years ago.
Last month, Brighton Magistrates’ Court was told that he had 4.5 times the legally permitted amount of cannabis in his blood.
He was driving a silver Mitsubishi Carisma Elegance when he was caught. He magistrates also ordered him to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £60, making £745 in total.
Adam Gilbert-Morris, 29, of Sutton Park Road, Seaford, was caught over the limit for cannabis in Elm Grove, Brighton.
He also admitted driving without insurance and, at Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire Magistrates’ Court, Aberystwyth, he was given a 12-month driving ban.
The bench fined him £120 for each offence and ordered him to pay £85 costs and a £34 victim surcharge, making £359 in total.
At Brighton Magistrates’ Court, sentencing was adjourned for knocker boy Jack Collins, 24, of Pickford Court, Crest Way, Portslade, to appear later this month.
Collins pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to drink driving at the wheel of a Renault in Brighton.
He also admitted driving without due care and attention in Whitehawk Way and failing to stop in Warren Road.
Collins pleaded guilty to having four times the legally permitted amount of cannabis in his blood when he jumped a red light in a Citroen Berlingo in Upper Bedford Street, in Kemp Town. And he had no insurance.
Out of the 212 arrests by Sussex Police during December the 44 accounts for 20.75% of the total.
Given that, on census data, Brighton and Hove forms 16.93% of the population of the East and West Sussex and Brighton and Hove population and it’s not unbelievable (despite BHCC’s efforts to deter people from visiting here) that a whopping 1 in five arrests were made in an area that is populated by just under 20 % of the population of the entire county.
Whilst I totally agree drink and drug driving is about as acceptable as a 1970s BBC presenter hosting a child’s birthday party, please don’t over dramatise basic statistics.
Thanks Frank.
Then there’s the number of drivers from Brighton and Hove, just 22, so barely over 10per cent. Sort of impressive, statistically, in a way. Hadn’t noticed, though, any over- or under-dramatising going on tbh, just a straightforward, unvarnished presentation of the basic numbers. Then again, I guess doing your job, Frank, means smug and rude people feel they can try and patronise you. Keep up the good work and don’t let them grind you down!
Sam, I think Greens Out is a relic from Argus comments so I wouldn’t bother responding. Surprised they don’t ban him.