A cabbie has been jailed - after driving to Manchester Airport while FIVE times over the booze limit.
Gurpraat Johal, 38, of Denby Dale, was locked up for 12 weeks after his lawyer told Manchester magistrates that he had been drinking a bottle of whisky a day for the past three years.
But it did not stop him driving along busy motorways to pick up the party of women.
“This man is dying, he is killing himself with whisky” said Paul Darnborough, defending.
Divorced father-of- three Johal had spent 90 minutes on the M60 and M62 getting to the airport on the evening of April 10.
“He is a chronic alcoholic and has suffered serious damage to his liver” added Mr Darnborough.
Johal, of Gilthwaites Grove, pleaded guilty to driving his 12-seater taxi after consuming excess alcohol.
He was banned off the road for 36 months and passing sentence court chairwoman Mrs Pauline Salisbury said “This offence is so serious the only sentence is one of custody.
“This was a blatant disregard to the safety of other people.
“You drove for 90 minutes on two busy motorways and were going to take several passengers back to Huddersfield.
“You could not even stand up properly. You risked your own life and that of others”.
The court heard that he was now confined to a wheelchair. After his arrest he suffered a seizure and spent 10 days in toxic shock.
Prosecutor Mrs Kate Gaskell said Johal was arrested on the domestic approach to the airport.
The taxi was stationary moving backwards and forwards and Johal smelled strongly of alcohol. He said he had accepted a job to pick up passengers and take them back to Huddersfield.
Said to be £7,000 in debt Johal said he had been knocking back whisky all day and should not have accepted the job. He will spend six weeks of his sentence in jail and the rest on licence.
He was ordered to pay an £80 Government surcharge.
“He is extremely ashamed of his behaviour – he has put his life in the bottom of a whisky bottle” said Mr Darnborough.
