A 23-year-old man has been handed a 12-week prison term today for repeatedly breaching the conditions of his suspended sentence.

John Beverly, of Gonville Crescent, Stevenage, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to attend a Drink Impaired Driver programme on May 24 and July 8 when he appeared at Stevenage Magistrates’ Court this morning.

Beverly, a labourer, was arrested on December 31, 2012, when he stole a friend’s silver Peugeot after they had been drinking at a pub in Shephall Way, Stevenage, at about 11pm and crashed it into a front garden.

He was arrested at the scene and provided a breathalyser sample nearly four times over the 35mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath limit. When he was taken back to the station he refused to provide a blood specimen after the station’s breathalyser unit had broken and was charged with failure to provide a specimen.

He originally appeared at the court on February 7 last year and was given a 20-week sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered to attend a DID programme for the same period.

Beverly was back in court on May 8, 2013, for failing to attend appointments and the court chose to extend his order by six months, up to November this year.

Despite this he continued to miss appointments, in total attending 29 of the 71 – 16 of which he had an acceptable excuse and 15 an unacceptable excuse.

He was given a 12-week sentence, starting today, for theft of a motor vehicle and six weeks for failing to provide a blood sample – to run concurrently.