A 29-year-old drink-driver who crashed his girlfriend’s car into the river in Ballaugh has been handed a suspended sentence and banned from driving for five years.

Ashley Graham Kelly caused more than £13,000 worth of damage to railings when he crashed the Renault Clio.

He was also disqualified from driving at the time and took the car without consent.

Magistrates sentenced him to eight months custody, suspended for two years, and made him the subject of a two-year suspended sentence supervision order.

Kelly was also ordered to pay £5,000 compensation, the maximum which can be awarded in summary court, to the Department of Infrastructure for the damage caused.

Prosecuting advocate Barry Swain told the court that Kelly was at his partner’s home in Peel on December 4.

She went to bed at 11pm leaving Kelly downstairs.

At 2.10am police were called to an accident in Ballaugh near the Raven pub after a report of a car being in the river.

Police attended and found Kelly at the scene with wet trainers and trousers.

After being arrested Kelly told police he had drunk eight cans of lager earlier in the evening before going back to his girlfriend’s house.

He claimed he was then picked up by a friend and taken to Ramsey where he had four or five pints.

Kelly, who lives in Westhill Avenue, Castletown, said he was then dropped in Ballaugh by his friend and had been waiting for another lift when he heard a loud crash.

He said he saw the Clio in the river and two lads walking up the bank.

Kelly claimed he had not been involved in the crash.

An analysis of his blood produced a result of 158. The legal limit is 80.

DNA found on an airbag in the Clio showed that Kelly was driving at the time of the crash.

In court, he entered a basis of plea admitting he had driven the car.

Kelly was banned in November and sentenced to 200 hours community service, just two weeks before this incident, for a similar offence after he took the same woman’s car and drove it while he was twice the drink-drive limit.

Defence advocate Ian Kermode said: ’Mr Kelly has been on court bail and a curfew since December 10 and there have been no breaches of bail or further offences.

’He has an offer of employment if he doesn’t go to jail. He tells me he has not consumed alcohol since the offences.’

Mr Kermode referred to a probation report which recommended a suspended sentence supervision order.

probation

’Probation will identify areas that need work and he is willing to do that,’ said the advocate.

’A suspended sentence would be a ringing warning in his ears that he’s on thin ice.’

Magistrates chair Carol Maddrell said that they were ’only just’ satisfied that there were grounds to suspend the sentence.

Kelly was also ordered to retake his test at the end of the ban and complete a drink-driving rehabilitation course.

He will pay the DoI compensation at a rate of £50 per week.