Bexhill man arrested for drug driving blamed his brother for being behind the wheel

The man’s sibling was later arrested on a warrant for failing to attend a court hearing and spent a night in custody before being hauled before magistrates to face a charge of driving under the influence of cannabis.

His business was also affected due to protracted legal proceedings.

Hove Crown Court was told that police stopped Vincent Kimber, 51, of St Barnabas Court, Bexhill, on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs in the town in November 2019.

Vincent Kimber, 51, tested positive for having the proportion of cannabis above the specified limit in his blood - and blamed his brother

The 51-year-old later tested positive for having the proportion of a controlled drug, namely cannabis, above the specified limit in his blood.

However, the court heard that when Kimber was taken to a nearby police custody suite to be formally charged there was a fault with the equipment used to identify a suspect.

In the UK, many major police stations are now equipped with Live Scan machines, which allow for suspects’ fingerprints to be instantly compared with a national database, with results usually reported in less than ten minutes.

When asked for his identification details, Kimber verbally gave police his brother’s name, age and address – later leading to his sibling’s arrest.

Adrian Harvey, defending, told the court that Kimber’s decision to give his brother’s details was done on the “spur of the moment” and his client had expressed remorse for his actions.

“This wasn’t some kind of conspiracy,” said Mr Harvey, who added that the two brothers had recently met up at their mother’s funeral.

The court heard that when the story later started to unravel Kimber had told his defence team he had been “out of his head on cocaine and cannabis” when he was originally arrested in 2019.

The recorder Rachel Drake said that while she accepted Kimber’s decision was not a conspiracy, she added that “spur of the moments can be reversed”.

“I have to sentence you for the smooth running of our society,” said the judge.

Miss Drake sentenced Kimber to 12 months’ imprisonment for perverting the course of justice and ordered him to pay a victim surcharge of £149.

He was also disqualified from driving for 18 months for the original drug driving offence.

Kimber pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing.

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