Drink driver blocked a car park entrance after session
AMAN almost three- and- a- half times the drink driving limit blocked a car park entrance with his vehicle after drinking heavily at Wetherspoons, a court heard.
Nicholas Warmington Maude, 56, who had a previous drink driving conviction after a similar high alcohol reading, was arrested at around midnight after a night of drinking at Wetherspoons in Macclesfield town centre, Stockport Magistrates’ Court heard.
Prosecutor Robin Lynch said Maude, of Sutton Gardens, Earlsway, Macclesfield, was arrested shortly after midnight on July 11 this on Park Lane in the town after a motorist reported his ‘strange behaviour’.
Mr Lynch, said: “A member of the public was trying to access a car park on Park Lane and the defendant’s Toyota Yaris was in the middle of the road, not moving, blocking the entrance.
“He spoke to the defendant who said he had broken down but he suspected the driver was under the influence.
“After police arrived he provided a positive breath sample.”
The court heard that after his arrest Maude gave a reading of 119 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit being 35.
It also emerged that Maude had failed to reapply for his driving licence after being banned from driving after a similar high alcohol reading in July 2012.
That meant his insurance and licence were not valid at the time of the offence.
Maude pleaded guilty to drink driving, driving without insurance and driving a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence.
Anthony Derbyshire, defending, said that his client had not been in trouble for seven years and had suffered a downturn in his mental health prior to the offence.
He said: “He had only driven around 150 yards since leaving the pub and had stopped because he had realised that he was wrong and knew he should not have been driving. That is when the member of the public intervened.”
He added that his failure to re-apply for his driving licence was ‘a genuine mistake’ and he had been paying insurance premiums of £700 a year.
The bench imposed an electronically enforced curfew on Maude meaning he will be confined to his home from 7pm to 7am for the next three months.
He was disqualified from driving for three years.
“He stopped because he had realised that he was wrong”