A clothing collection driver was caught over the alcohol limit after he kept looking at police while driving on the A66.    

Darius Jankauskas, 35, was driving a Mercedes Vito on the A66 from the Broughton Cross area on the morning of June 26, Workington Magistrates’ Court was told.

Pamela Fee, prosecuting, said a police officer on patrol on the A66 at Brigham noticed that the driver appeared to be paying a lot of attention to him.

As the police officer looked, the driver looked away. The driver turned left and the police officer suspected he had tried to get away from him.

The vehicle registration number was put through the police database which showed it was connected to somebody for driving while disqualified, but it wasn’t the defendant, the court was told.

Police followed the vehicle and stopped it. Jankauskas got out of the driver’s side and said he was collecting charity bags.

The officer noticed an open can of Stella in the passenger door.

The court heard that Jankauskas smelled of alcohol and looked drunk. He was breathalyzed and blew over the prescribed limit.

He was then arrested and taken to the police station. He gave a reading of 57mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Jankauskas, who was unrepresented, said he would lose his job as a driver for Cash4Clothes and he had a wife and two children to support.

The defendant, of Borland Avenue, Carlisle, pleaded guilty to driving with alcohol level above the limit.

Jankauskas was banned from driving for 12 months, to be reduced by 13 weeks, if he completes a drink driver’s rehabilitation course.

He was fined £120 and must pay £85 costs and a £48 victim surcharge.