Pensioner banned from the road after being more than three times drink drive limit
A 72-year-old man has been banned from the road for two years after he was caught at more than three times the legal drink drive limit in Bridgnorth having previously been found drunk in his car in a pub car park.
Peter Beddows of Bury Ring in Haughton, Stafford, had admitted two charges of being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle as well as driving above the legal drink drive limit when he appeared before magistrates in Telford on Tuesday.
The court heard that the pensioner was found by police in his Fiat 500 in the car park of a pub on July 27 this year.
Sharan Gill, prosecuting, told magistrates that police were asked to attend the pub after a witness reported that Beddows had consumed alcohol and got in his car.
She said: "He was found in his car in the driving seat with the engine off. He told police he was sleeping in the car and was not drunk, but police said they could smell alcohol."
She said officers spoke to the landlord of the pub, who said the defendant did not normally sleep in his car in the car park.
A breath test later revealed he was over the legal limit to drive and in court he admitted being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle.
Ms Gill added that on August 14, a witness contacted police to say Beddows was seen "driving erratically" in Old Smithfield Road in Bridgnorth.
She said when he was pulled over, officers noticed the defendant was gripping his steering wheel and refused to take the key out of the ignition.
At one point, she told magistrates, he had locked himself in the car.
After police got him out of the vehicle, Beddows was breathalysed and found to be more than three times the drink drive limit, having recorded 114 millilitres of alcohol in his breath - the limit is 35 millilitres.
In defending Beddows, solicitor Martin McNamara told magistrates that his client's alcohol consumption had "substantially increased" following the death of his wife two years previously.
He also said that the car had since been sold and his client had "no intention" of driving again.
Beddows was banned from the road for two years and ordered to pay £710 in fines and court costs, but the magistrates waived a community order due to the defendant's age and health status.
