Michael Lyons lost appeal after he was jailed for 10 years

People in a Harold Wood street saw a man they thought was dead arrested for being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle.

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Residents in Phillida Road, called for an ambulance after seeing a man – who “looked deceased”- sitting in a driveway in his car At 10.20pm on January 15.

When an ambulance crew arrived, they found Usman Akram, of Hurstbourne Gardens, Barking, sitting in the driver’s seat with his key in the ignition.

He then started shouting and swearing at the ambulance crew, who removed his keys.

Akram attempted to use the handbrake and tried to take back the keys, but the car remained where it was, and he was arrested after police were called.

He was found to be almost three times the drink-drive limit.

The 35-year-old appeared at Barkingside Magistrates’ Court last Friday where he pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle.

In his defence, the court heard that Akram, who had two previous convictions for drink driving, had given up alcohol in 2006.

But a business associate had called on him after work and offered him a drink which he believed to be Coca-Cola.

He had no recollection of how he came to be in the driveway of the Harold Wood property, and there was no evidence that he had driven the car himself.

Magistrates adjourned the case to February 6 so that the probation service could prepare a report on him.