Driver thought he was ok after five beers

Rhys Wilson Mackey, Lower Quilly Road, was banned from driving for 12 months last Thursday at Banbridge Magistrates Court.

He was also fined £200 and ordered to pay a £15 offender’s levy for driving with excess alcohol in breath on March 24 this year.

The court heard that at 1.50am police saw a car with no lights on turn into the car park at Tesco on the Castlewellan Road, Banbridge.

They spoke to the driver, who was the defendant, and could smell alcohol on his breath. He told police he had about five beers.

And evidential test gave a reading of 43 and Mackey declined to take up the option of providing a blood sample.

A barrister representing the defendant said he had been at home with a few friends.

He explained that a friend of Mackey’s had called and asked the defendant to collect him. His client thought he was okay to drive.

District Judge, Mr Peter King, said the reading was low enough to entitle the defendant to give a blood sample and if he had taken that option the case may have gone a different way.

The judge ruled that Mackey was suitable for the drink drive course which, if he completed it, would reduce his ban.