by Lynn Cox

lcox@thekmgroup.co.uk

A Lithuanian lorry driver has been jailed and banned from the road after smashing into a car while almost four times the legal drink-drive limit.

Turlekas Kestutis, 47, was jailed for 84 days by Medway magistrates, after appearing via video link from North Kent Police Station in Northfleet.

Kestutis, of no fixed address, was arrested after his HGV hit the car on the A227 Wrotham Road turn-off at about 4pm on Sunday.

During the virtual court hearing, magistrates heard how Kestutis had driven from West Thurrock, Essex, and down the A2 before he turned off on the A227, near Gravesend, where the accident happened.

When police arrived they gave him a breath test which revealed he had 122mg of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
He was arrested and kept in cells overnight.

Keith Yardy, prosecuting, said: “He started to negotiate the junction at the roundabout and there was a Mercedes waiting to move off.
“He drove directly into it.”

Magistrates also heard that Kestutis, who had no previous convictions, had been a professional lorry driver for the past 25 years and would lose his job as a result of what had happened.

Through an interpreter, he told the bench he was guilty of drink driving as he had been boozing with lorry driver friends at a lorry park in West Thurrock, the day before, as he had been on a rest day.

Kestutis, who is married with one child, admitted through his solicitor John Magee that he had drunk too much and also said he was very sorry.

Chair of the bench Elizabeth Brown, jailed Kestutis for 84 days and banned him from driving for 36 months.

She said: “We are jailing you due to the high level of alcohol in your breath. “You are an HGV driver so it is your job to drive, but the standard of driving resulted in this accident at the roundabout where a high level of traffic was likely.”