Drink-driver found slumped at wheel after crash in Northampton town centre jailed for nine months

Police were called out to Greyfriars at 4.45am on May 14 after a CCTV camera operator alerted them to a Nissan Qashqai that had collided with a stationary vehicle and then driven off.

Stephen Moore, prosecuting, said officers found the vehicle stopped at some traffic lights and Gabriel Beyene, the driver, had his head “slumped back”.

As the handbrake had not been applied, the vehicle started to roll forward but a police officer managed to jump in and stop the car.

Northampton Crown Court heard Beyene was breathalysed and gave a reading of 57 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Beyene, who the court heard was a trainee accountant, was also at the wheel of a friend’s car that he was not insured to drive.

Beyene pleaded guilty to driving whilst over the alcohol limit and without any insurance.

As a result of the conviction, the 22-year-old, of Skinner Street in London, was in breach of an 18-month suspended sentence imposed in April this year for supplying class A drugs.

Judge Rupert Mayo said he could not understand why Beyene had taken such a “risk” within a few weeks of receiving his suspended sentence.

He imposed six months of the suspended jail sentence and three months, to be served consecutively, for the driving offences.

Beyene was disqualified from driving for two years.