Student was over drink drive limit when he flipped car in Wrexham street

Joshua Richard Bennion, 19, of Ffordd Ystrad, was back home from university in Swansea when he made the “terrible error of judgment” in the early hours of the morning on June 30.

Mold Magistrates Court heard how Bennion, a member of the university’s conservation society with a passion for tackling climate change, had been in the town centre with a friend where he had drank a couple of pints of lager.

Bennion and his friend returned to the Fairways estate, where he had left his car, shortly after midnight, where they spent several hours playing video games at his friend’s house, before he made a decision to drive home at around 4am.

Joshua Bennion flipped his car on its roof when he decided to drive home from a friend's house after drinking earlier in the evening. Images courtesy of Crown Prosecution Service

Rhian Jackson, prosecuting, said a woman living on Forest Pines was woken up not long after this to the sound of what she thought was “a roof falling in” and when she looked out of her bedroom window, saw a red Citroen on its roof.

She saw a man trying to climb out of the smashed driver’s side window and put on some clothes and shoes to go outside and see if he was ok.

When she got outside, Bennion was now out of the vehicle, sat on the grass, saying “what the f*** have I done?”

Other neighbours living on the street came out to see what was going on and the lady took Bennion into her home and made him a cup of tea, while someone else called his parents.

The police arrived on the scene and it became clear that the car had also struck a lamp post, and after speaking to a very emotional Bennion, he told them he had been drinking and gave a reading of 66 - the limit being 35 - and was taken to Wrexham Maelor hospital to be treated for a neck injury.

While at the hospital, a sample of blood was taken which gave a reading of 99 milligrammes of blood in 100 millilitres of blood - the limit for that being 80mg/100ml.

Alun Williams, defending, said his client was a very inexperienced driver, who only drove occasionally due to spending most of his time away at university.

He went on to say how nobody had mentioned that his client had been affected by alcohol at the scene and that speed hadn’t been a factor in the collision as he had only driven a very short distance before he clipped the curb which caused him to hit the lamp post and flip the car on its roof.

Mr Williams said his client had been fully co-operative with the police and was a young man of very good character.

In banning Bennion from the road for a period of 12 months, deputy District Judge Andrew Jebb told him that he had no reason to doubt he was a young man of good character.

He said: “You made a terrible error of judgement when you decided you were safe to drive home and that will have consequences for you and your future.”

Bennion was also ordered to pay a fine of £120, court costs of £85 and a surcharge of £32.