Pre-Christmas drinks saw driver heading on to wrong side of A46

TWO-YEAR BAN AFTER ADMITTING FAILING TO PROVIDE BREATH TEST

A WITNESS called 999 after spotting a driver who had been drinking heading the wrong way onto the A46 dual carriageway near Leicester.

Businessman Mark Busby was found to be well over the limit when police officers caught up with him, half on the road and half on the grass verge, trying to turn his car around after realising he was on the wrong side of the road.

After he failed a roadside breath test, he was arrested and taken to a police station.

There he was required to give another specimen of breath, but failed to do so after what was described in court as a “fairly lame attempt”.

He has now appeared at Leicester Magistrates’ Court, where he pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen on December 23 last year.

Busby, 48, of Dale Close, Birstall, told the court he never normally drinks.

He said: “I had gone out to meet customers and I bought the first round and got myself a coke, but then a customer bought me a beer.”

Prosecutor Sally Bedford described what happened next.

She said: “At 9.30pm, the police received a report the defendant was driving the wrong way along the sliproad onto the A46.

“He would have been facing towards the oncoming traffic, which is obviously a dangerous situation.

“Officers made their way to the location and found the vehicle half on the grass verge, attempting to turn around and drive onto the carriageway.

“There was a strong smell of alcohol and Busby was unsteady on his feet.”

The roadside breath test – which cannot be used for a drink-driving conviction but can be taken into account by the magistrates – was 81 microgrammes per 100ml of breath.

The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Ms Bedford said: “At the police station there were four partial specimens – fairly lame attempts to provide.

“It’s perhaps not a deliberate refusal, but a pretty poor effort and clearly there was also a very dangerous piece of driving.”

Imogen Cox, representing Busby, said there was no harm or injury caused and that the incident was a “one-off” and a “silly mistake”.

She explained her client was too nervous to give a proper specimen at the police station.

She said: “Mr Busby was extremely nervous. I’ve watched the footage and he is blowing, but he’s beside himself.”

She said her client had always worked hard and had his own business while also being the main carer for two nephews. The chair of the bench, Christopher Thompson, told Busby: “We accept you didn’t refuse to give a specimen but 81 is a high level of impairment and there was an element of dangerous driving – you could have killed someone.”

Busby was banned from driving for two years and told to pay a £1,216 fine, a £486 victim surcharge and £85 costs.

There was an element of dangerous driving - you could have killed someone

Magistrate Christopher Thompson