'Determined' Sussex police dog hunts down runaway drink-driving suspect in Eastbourne
A "determined" police dog located a suspected drink-driver who'd run away from an officer in Eastbourne.
Officers from Sussex Police saw a stationary Peugeot on the dual carriageway in Golden Jubilee Way, with a defective rear light.
The Peugeot driver, Niles Birkett, told officers he had stopped to allow his passenger out to go to the toilet by the roadside.
When he stepped out of the vehicle, they suspected he was driving under the influence of drink or drugs.
Birkett was asked to put out a cigarette but refused, then ran off into an area of dense gorse and undergrowth where he hid in the darkness.
Specialist dog handler PC Esme Jeal was called in along with PD Copper, a two-year-old German Shepherd, to help locate Birkett, alongside Eastbourne response officers.
Birkett was found and arrested on suspicion of driving while unfit through drink or drugs.
PC Jeal said: “PD Copper was asked to search for the suspect through difficult terrain after he had run away from the police.
“He located the suspect, and we were able to arrest him and take him back to custody.”
Birkett, 23, a deliveryman of Harepit Close, South Croydon, appeared before Hastings Magistrates’ Court on 7 December, charged with failing to provide a specimen of breath for analysis when suspected of driving while unfit through drink or drugs.
The court heard how the incident happened at about 2am on 29 August last year.
He refused to provide a breath test or blood sample in custody, at one stage lying flat on the floor and refusing to comply with officers.
He was therefore charged with failing to provide a specimen for analysis.
Birkett admitted the charge in court and was disqualified from driving for 20 months.
He was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and he must also pay a £114 victim surcharge and £85 costs.
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