A Catterick-based soldier has received a 20-month motoring ban for drink driving after police identified him from two angel-wing tattoos on his chest.
Tomu Wainiqolo, an armoured vehicle driver with the Royal Lancers, was caught out after staff at Tesco in Catterick alerted police about a group of men to whom they had refused to sell alcohol because they appeared “intoxicated”, York Magistrates’ Court heard.
Prosecutor Sarah Tyrer said that Tesco staff called police at about 10am on August 3 to tell them they had just refused to serve alcohol to a group of men, including 23-year-old Wainiqolo, as they appeared to be drunk.
They said the men then got into a black Honda Accord and gave a description of the driver who was wearing a black hoodie and had two distinctive angel wings tattooed on his chest.
“When officers arrived at Tesco, they couldn’t locate that vehicle but shortly afterwards, the garrison CCTV captures the vehicle driving on Leyburn Road and turn into Munster Barracks,” said Ms Tyrer.
A military guard told police he had seen the Honda turn into the barracks but didn’t know where it had gone after that.
An officer searched the area and spotted the vehicle parked on a kerb on nearby Ava Road. He saw two men get out of the Honda and noticed that the man who got out of the driver’s door was wearing a black hoodie, a black baseball cap and had two angel wings tattooed on his chest.
“The officers speaks to him and he forms the impression he is under the influence of alcohol,” added Ms Tyrer.
A roadside drink drive test showed that Wainqolo had 98mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal alcohol limit is 35mcg.
He was arrested and taken to Harrogate Police Station where a subsequent test, some two hours later, gave a reading of 75mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath – more than twice the legal limit.
This formal lower reading was used to charge Wainiqolo with driving over the prescribed alcohol limit. He was also charged with driving without insurance.
Wainqolo admitted both offences when he appeared before York magistrates today (Wednesday, August 20) accompanied by his senior officer.
Wainiqolo’s solicitor Jackie East said the defendant had been serving in the Royal Lancers as an armoured vehicle driver since 2023 and had a good, unblemished military record.
She said that Wainqolo had been drinking the night before his arrest on a Sunday morning.
“He said he had been drinking until around 4am to 5am,” added Miss East.
She said that Wainqolo would not lose his job in the army due to the inevitable driving ban, but he would be moved to a different role as he couldn’t drive armoured vehicles without his licence.
“It will, however, impact his progression in the army,” she added.
Wainiqolo – formerly of Ambrosden, Oxfordshire, but whose new postal address was given as Wade Avenue, Newcastle – was now facing a disciplinary hearing within the military as “the army do not treat these offences lightly”.
His senior officer said that Wainqolo’s driving offences were “in stark contrast” to his impeccable behaviour in the army.
As well as the 20-month driving ban, magistrates fined Wainiqolo £415 and ordered him to pay £85 costs, along with a statutory surcharge of £166.
