Kettering drink-driver jailed over shockingly high reading

A Kettering drink-driver who blew more than five times the legal limit after being stopped on the A43 has been jailed.

Rafal Paszewski will spend his 39th birthday behind bars after the shockingly high breathalyser reading, believed to be one of the county’s highest.

He was driving his silver Ford just outside Geddington on January 16 when he was pulled over by police.

Officers took him into custody where he gave a reading of 177mcg of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Paszewski, of Bath Road, was later charged with drink-driving, driving without insurance and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

He pleaded guilty to the offences at Northampton Magistrates’ Court and was bailed ahead of a sentencing hearing, where he faced a maximum of six months in prison.

And this week magistrates jailed him for 12 weeks because of his ‘flagrant disregard for people and their property’.

The drink-driver was also banned from getting behind the wheel for 36 months and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a surcharge to fund victim services of £128.

A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman said: “It is truly shocking that anyone with a reading as high as this chose to get into a car.

“Rafal Paszewski not only put himself in danger but he also put other people in danger and that is unforgivable.

“Drink-driving is never acceptable and there is never an excuse for it. We hope this prison sentence sends a message to other people of just how seriously this offence is taken.”

Paszewski had been arrested weeks after Northamptonshire Police launched their Christmas crackdown where they named every person charged with drink or drug-driving.

At the time PC Dave Lee from the Safer Roads Team said: “Anyone who doesn’t want to be included on this list, the message is simple: do not drink or drug-drive.

“It only takes one second to have a collision which can change your life or the life of an innocent bystander and their family.”

The highest alcohol reading solicitors had ever seen in Northamptonshire was in 2018 when Glyn Salisbury was arrested in Great Doddington.

He gave a police station reading of 205mcg and was jailed for 16 weeks.