Kirby car boozer's MDMA mistake

Christian Gunstone was watched by police as he sat in the driver’s seat of his Honda Accord with his three-year-old child, parked in Curry’s carpark, on Nottingham Road, Mansfield.

At 3pm on August 19, police saw the car’s lights go on and they approached him.

He told police he was waiting for his partner to come back, said prosecutor Robert Carr, but a breath test revealed he was more than twice over the limit.

At the police station a plastic sachet containing a “light brown crystalline” substance was found on him, and he told officers it was MDMA.

But subsequent lab tests were inconclusive.

Gunstone, 39, of Alexandra Street, admitted being in charge of a vehicle whilst unfit through drink, and attempting to possess a Class A drug, when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Thursday.

Sarah Neale, mitigating, said Gunstone, who had no previous convictions, had argued with his partner and drank from the hip-flask before planning to drive to her house in Sutton.

She said the customer service advisor “had been to meetings for alcohol in the past, but no longer believed it was a problem.”

She said he had since seperated from his partner and they had two children.

“He explains he found the package and put it in his pocket and forgot about it,” Miss Neale added.

District judge Andrew Meachin said: “You believed it was MDMA.”

He fined Gunstone £265 for the driving offence and £265 for possessing the drug, with costs of £85 and a £30 victim surcharge. Ten points were put on his licence.