Biker was over three times drink drive limit

A Sunderland carer could be jailed after taking his wife for an early morning spin on his three-wheel motorbike while three-and-half-times the drink-drive limit.

GeorgeKay,60,ofExmouth Street,CarleyHill,wasspotted downing a can of cider in Sunderland city centre by CCTV operators at 8.20am on Friday, April 24, a court heard.

Theyalertedpolice,butKay drove off on his Honda before they could arrive to quiz him, carrying his spouse along for the ride, magistrates in South Tyneside were told.

But prosecutor Grace Taylor said they caught up with him moments later in Fawcett Street – and the biker gave a reading of 104 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Hissinglecanconsumption camethemorningafteraheavy drinking session which he had not adequately slept off, it was said.

Unhappily for Taylor, two further breath tests at Southwickpolicestationrevealedhis alcohollevelshadshotupto123 microgrammes.

That figure raises magistrates’ sentencing powers to thelevelofaminimum12-week prison term, which could be suspended, the court heard.

Magistrates have handed him an interim driving ban ahead of sentencing on Monday, July 20.

Ms Taylor said: “At about 8.20am a man was seen by CCTV operators drinking a canofcider,andtheycontacted the police. The police arrive to see him drive away on the motor vehicle with a woman, who was his wife, but he was quickly stopped. He gave a positive roadside breath test.”

Annalisa Moscadini, defending, said: “This was a situation where he had been drinkingthenightbeforerather heavily.”