Brentwood: Man caught drinking pint at the wheel of his car

“Such blatant ignorance of the dangers of drink driving proves the continuing challenge we have in keeping the roads of Essex safe.”

That’s from the head of our Roads Policing Unit after a man was caught by officers drinking a pint of lager while behind the wheel of his car.

Officers with Brentwood Community Policing Team were on patrol in a marked police vehicle on the evening of Sunday 22 December last year.

While travelling along Hutton Drive, they became aware of a car partially blocking the road.

They pulled up alongside the vehicle to ask the driver to move to a better position.

The officers spotted the vehicle had its engine running.

They watched as the man behind the wheel proceeded to take a sip of beer from a distinctive Stella Artois pint glass.

Our officers challenged the man, who told them he had only consumed “a sip” of beer.

He proceeded to fail a roadside breath test.

The man, 25-year-old Andre Ali-Baba, of Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, was promptly arrested and charged with drink driving.

Appearing at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 20 February, he was banned from driving for 14 months and ordered to pay £256 in fines and court costs.

Ali-Baba was arrested during the month-long Operation Limit, a national focus on drink and drug driving across the Christmas period.

Throughout the month, a total of 339 people were arrested in Essex for drink or drug driving-related offences thanks to the work of teams across the force.

'We'll keep removing drink drivers from our roads'

Adam Pipe, head of our Roads Policing Unit, said:

“Driving under the influence means motorists take risks every time they get behind the wheel of a car.
“They put the lives of themselves and others at risk.
“It might seem an obvious point to make, but cases such as this prove the extent of the challenge we face in getting this simple message to cut through.
“Drink and drug driving ruins the lives of individuals and communities and it is completely avoidable.
“We continue to do all we can to tackle drink driving, but we’d ask the public to support us.
“If you know of, or suspect someone of drink or drug driving, let us know.
“We’ll use that information to direct our patrols to identified ‘hotspots’, to catch offenders and take them off our roads.”

Help us reduce road collisions and casualties in Essex and make our roads even safer. Report instances of poor and dangerous driving through Safer Essex Roads Partnership's Extra Eyes initiative.

More than ever, irresponsible, dangerous and illegal road behaviour is being recorded by road users. Through Extra Eyes this footage can be sent to, and reviewed by, an investigator within Road Policing at Essex Police.

Find out how by visiting Safer Essex Roads Partnership website.

We're offering more ways for our communities to stay up to date with our work across Essex.

Our e-newsletter, Dispatch, delivers news, information, and advice from Essex Police.

Dispatch is a ‘one stop shop’ for local police news – direct from the source. 

Sign up is completely free and you can unsubscribe at any time.