Burger protest driver cleared
A MAN has been cleared of being drunk in charge of a mobility scooter at a McDonald’s drive-thru.
Michael Green, 62, staged a 40-minute protest when restaurant staff refused to serve him on health and safety grounds.
Queues built up and a crowd gathered as he shouted: “All I want is a burger.”
Police arrived and Mr Green was arrested. He was later charged with being drunk “in charge of a carriage” under the 1872 Licensing Act.
But the former lorry driver refused to take a breathalyser test during the incident earlier this month in Skegness, Lincs.
He insisted he was not intoxicated and his vehicle was roadworthy.
The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the case when Mr Green appeared at the town’s magistrates’ court yesterday.
Nick Todd, prosecuting, said “there is a question” as to whether police were entitled to use the breathalyser.
Mobility scooters are classed as a carriage and are not covered by modern drink-driving laws.