A LORRY driver has been jailed after turning up for work while more than three times the legal drink-drive limit.

Chester Magistrates' Court head how on Wednesday, October 16, Cheshire Police received a report that a HGV driver had arrived to collect stock at an industrial site in Runcorn while intoxicated.

Officers attended the scene on Hardwick Road and stopped a Scania articulated lorry that was being driven by Sergejus Indrisiunas.

A roadside breath test was conducted and the 57-year-old provided a positive result, leading to his arrest on suspicion of drink-driving.

In custody, Indrisiunas took a second test which revealed he was more than three times above the legal limit of alcohol.

The reading showed he had 120 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, with the legal limit being 35 microgrammes.

Indrisiunas, whose address on court documents was simply given as Lithuania, was subsequently charged and remanded in custody before his court appearance.

Magistrates sentenced him the following day to 12 weeks in prison, to be served immediately, and disqualified him from driving for three years.

They said that the defendant was driving a large HGV with an ‘exceptionally high’ alcohol reading, which put members of the public ‘at risk of serious harm’.

The sentence was welcomed by PC Nathan Holland, of Cheshire Police’s Runcorn Response team, who said: “I dread to think what could have happened if we had not stopped Indrisiunas, and he had continued to drive on the road with other motorists while behind the wheel of such a large vehicle.

“Drink driving is one of the fatal five offences, meaning it is a leading contributor to death and serious injury on the roads in England and Wales.

“Cheshire Police will not tolerate anyone driving on the roads while over the specified limit of drink or drugs, least of all those who are supposed to be professional drivers in large articulated lorries such as Indrisiunas'."

Anyone who gets behind the wheel of a vehicle should familiarise themselves with the ‘fatal five’ offences, in order to minimise the risk of any accidents occurring on the county's roads.

Investigations into collisions show that some of the incidents could have been prevented and that there are five main contributory factors that cause serious road traffic collisions.

They are careless driving, drink and drug-driving, not wearing a seatbelt, using a mobile phone and speeding.

Road users who commit one of the fatal five offences are far more likely to be involved in a fatal collision than those who do not.

If you have any information in relation to drink-driving, or dangerous driving of any kind, call Cheshire Police on 101 or visit cheshire.police.uk/tell-us