Drink driving arrest: Watch moment suspected drink driver ‘tries to fool breathalyser’

Watch as a ‘suck back detected’ message flashes up on the screen of the breathalyser test, as an officer tells the driver, “It’s saying you’re breathing in at the same time.”

Bodycam footage shows the moment a suspected drink driver ‘tried to fool a breathalyser’.

Police say CCTV operators alerted them to the driver of a white Mercedes, who was suspected of being under the influence of alcohol.

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Cameras followed the car to Victoria Road, Darlington, where officers stopped and breathalysed the driver.

A 'suck back detected' message flashes onto the screen of the breathalyser.placeholder image
A 'suck back detected' message flashes onto the screen of the breathalyser. | Durham Constabulary

Police say, despite repeated attempts to fool the breathalyser, including sucking on the tube instead of blowing into it, Gavin Twist eventually gave a roadside sample of 99. The legal limit is 35.

Twist was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, but when required to provide an evidential breath sample in custody, he refused on the grounds that he did not feel his pyjama bottoms were suitable for walking to the breath test room.

After refusing several opportunities, Twist was further arrested for failing to provide.

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On May 12, at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court, Gavin Twist, 43, was found guilty of failing to provide, driving without a licence, and driving without insurance. He was handed more than £1100 in fines and disqualified from driving for 14 months.

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