Vic escapes jail term
Community service for drink-driving
Vic Reeves has been banned from driving for almost three years and ordered to do 100 hours community service for his drink-drive crash.
At Maidstone magistrates' court, the comic admitted leaving the scene of the accident, after crashing into a parked car near his Kent home.
He had previously pleaded guilty to drink-driving on March 25, the night his vintage Jaguar hit a Peugeot 106 in the village of Boughton Malherbe, before careering up a verge into a fence.
Tests later showed he was more than three times over the blood-alcohol limit.
The court heard he had been drinking gin and tonics during the day while writing a radio script, and then had a glass of white wine after driving to a local pub.
Chairwoman of the bench Lizzie Hughes told Reeves he could have faced a jail term, but would receive a more lenient sentence because of his early guilty pleas, contrition, and lack of previous offences.
The 32-month driving ban will be reduced to two years if he pays £200 to complete a drink-driving rehabilitation course, which he said he would do.
As he left court, the 46-year-old said: "I'm completely remorseful, and penitent and it was a stupid, stupid thing to do."
Published: 21 Apr 2005
