Driver almost three times over the limit when stopped
A self-employed joiner was caught at almost three times the drink-drive limit – his second such offence.
Ernest Lancaster, 61, was so drunk he allegedly stumbled from his silver Renault Megane when stopped by police in Silksworth Lane, Silksworth, Sunderland.
Despite claims any fumble on Thursday, February 4, was caused by a medical condition, magistrates banned him from the roads for 25 months.
During sentencing, tearful Lancaster, of Australia Tower, Aldenham Road, Silksworth, said: “I’m disgusted with myself.”
Prosecutor Michael Rose
told South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court: “The defendant was stopped driving at 8.21pm in Silksworth Lane.
“The officers thought he
was the worse for wear.
"It’s about three times the limit, he’s just under three times the limit. That’s the case.”
Rebecca Highton, defending, said a police claim Lancaster had stumbled due to intoxication was false.
She insisted it was caused by him suffering peripheral vascular disease, a condition that restricts blood flow to the legs.
Mrs Highton added: “Mr Lancaster accepts he was over the limit. However, he does not accept that he stumbled out of the car.
“He exits the vehicle and put his left leg out and his hand onto the door to put his right leg out.
“He has suffered from depression for the past 10 years and has used medication for the past five years.
“He’s had a number of difficult personal circumstances. He is seeking help.
“He has a peripheral vascular disease and is currently awaiting stents in his legs.
“He doesn’t have a problem with alcohol. He’s someone who made a mistake and is remorseful for it.”
Sentencing Lancaster, John Lee, chairman of the bench, said: “You’re old enough to know about drinking and driving, it’s been out there for years.
“You don’t drink, and you don’t drive. It’s something that the public and the court system are intolerant of.”
Lancaster, who has a drink-drive conviction from 2006, gave a reading of 102 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.
He was fined £200 and must pay £85 court costs and a £34 victim surcharge after pleading guilty to drink-driving.
A Green Party councillor has announced plans to resign citing concerns over the national leadership.
Dom Armstrong made headlines in 2019 when he was elected to the Washington South ward as Sunderland City Council’s first Green councillor.
He has now announced plans to step down after more than five years as a Green Party member and nearly two years as a city councillor.
In a widely shared statement posted on Facebook, the councillor said he had become “increasingly uneasy” about the party’s “stance on women’s rights”.
He also suggested some in the party were stifling debates around transgender issues with the “leadership’s approval”, and senior party members were being “harassed, and even suspended” for taking opposing viewpoints.
“During the last couple of months I have become increasingly uneasy about my party’s stance on women’s rights,” he said.
“I have had discussions
on social media with party members and activists, where, because I have politely disagreed, I have been called a transphobe, a homophobe, and worse.”
Mr Armstrong pointed to decisions taken at the Green Party’s recent Spring Conference as another reason for his resignation – including
a motion to discuss online transgender clinic, GenderGP, being “deliberately blocked”.
In the resignation statement, he said the “party’s elite are not willing (or able) to stand up to the bullying (of Green Party members), and in this they are complicit”.
“I cannot stay in a party
that puts ideology before women and children’s safety,” he said.
A statement from the Sunderland Green Party reads: “We are very sad to lose Dom Armstrong as a member and as a councillor.
“He is a man of very high principles, a good friend and has been an honest and hard
working councillor.
“The majority of Green Party members in England and Wales are, like Dom, focused on working for their local communities on green and social justice issues.
“In Sunderland and Washington we will continue to focus on the things that matter to residents.”