“Alcohol has ruined my life a lot. I’m trying to get through it.” However, the Béarnais appears once again before the Pau criminal court, this Monday, October 21. He still faces traffic violations. He already has five convictions on his criminal record for driving while drunk, the last in February. An electronic bracelet had just been placed on him on August 20, as a sentence modification.
The defendant had taken steps to recover his driving license, canceled due to his legal setbacks. But on Thursday October 17, this single childless person living in Hagetaubin took his Renault Twingo. “I wanted to collect some wood. As it was raining, out of stupidity, I preferred to take the car rather than do it by bike. »
“A one-off fact”
“I acted impulsively, stupidly,” regrets the Béarnais who does not open up too much. It was a one-off event.” He had not consumed alcohol, claiming to have been abstinent for several months. He is also accused of driving without insurance, the latter having been canceled when his license was cancelled.
Prosecutor Orlane Yaouanq is annoyed by this “tireless litany of traffic offenses”. Considering that he did not take the chance to benefit from a reduced sentence, she requires one year in prison with a committal warrant, in other words immediate incarceration.
This is not the sanction pleaded in defense by Me Isabelle Casau. She claims that the car will be confiscated by the courts, automatically eliminating the risk of the offense being renewed. And his client, an electrician who has been unemployed since he can no longer drive, lives with very little financial means. People living on the edge of the poverty line “are invaded by material problems such that it mobilizes all their intelligence. Faced with a given situation, they lose logic,” explains the advice.
The court sentenced the defendant to six months in prison. He therefore escapes detention. His vehicle was seized.
