A UK doctor who caused a pile-up while over the alcohol limit walked free from court yesterday after claiming he was ‘sleep-driving’.
GP Donald Clegg, who drank up to eight pints a day, was almost four times the drink-drive limit when he crashed into three vehicles. Last night, road safety campaigners hit out at the driver’s ‘lenient’ sentence.
Clegg, 59, claimed he was asleep and in a state of ‘auto-autonomy’ when he got into the Vauxhall Zafira dressed in his dressing gown and slippers after returning home from a restaurant.
Witnesses describe him driving ‘perfectly normally’, but he swung out on to the opposite carriageway and clipped two parked cars before smashing into the third in December.
A passerby who went to help Clegg had to snap the key out of the ignition to stop him driving away and said he was muttering about going to visit his mother. Police inquiries revealed that Clegg had driven his car into a tree eight months before - again claiming that he was ‘sleepwalking’ at the wheel.
The GP, of Prestwich, near Manchester, was banned from the roads for a year after he admitted drink-driving, but he escaped a prison sentence after magistrates in Bury accepted his sleep defence.
Tests revealed Clegg had 127microgrammes of alcohol in 100mm of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
Gwyn Lewis, defending, said: “Mr Clegg was suffering from a state of auto-autonomy and he was sleepwalking. In other words, he was not conscious at the time of his actions.”
Clegg was fined £650 (R7100), and ordered to pay £300 (R3290) costs as well as a £15 victim surcharge. His 12-month driving ban can be reduced to nine if he takes part in a drink-drivers’ rehabilitation programme.
Jean Hinkle, chairman of the Bury magistrates bench, told him: “The prosecution do not dispute that you were sleepwalking.
“We have considered special reasons, but we have heard about a similar incident in April where you drove a vehicle and hit a tree.
“You have told us today that you took no steps to ensure that it would not happen again. You posed a significant risk to other road users and pedestrians.
“In all the circumstances, we feel it’s necessary and appropriate to impose a disqualification.”
After the case, Carole Whittingham, of the Campaign Against Drinking and Driving said: “Unfortunately jailing people for drink-driving is very low down the list of priorities these days.
“There have been cases of people killing through drink-driving who have not gone to prison. This guy will no doubt say he has learned his lesson but I fear there will be many others out there who won’t.”