Ban for drink driver who flipped works' van

A driver who left the scene after flipping his works’ van in Sunderland claimed booze consumed at home while dazed afterwards had put him over the limit.

Michael Morrison, 31, admitted to police he had drunk with friends but insisted he had not been too sozzled to drive on the A1231 Wessington Way.

Morrison, of Longlands Drive, Houghton, entered a not guilty plea to a drink drive charge but backtracked when forensic analysis failed to back his claim.

It found he was almost twice the limit when he crashed his Vivaro motor on Saturday, July 22, magistrates in South Tyneside heard.

He is starting a 17-month roads’ ban after pleading guilty to charges of driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance.

Prosecutor Jessica Singh said: "The defendant was in a road traffic collision where he’s lost control of his vehicle, which has flipped.

"He has then gone home. He had been drinking alcohol. Police have attended the accident and then his home. He failed a roadside breath test.

"In interview he claimed to have drunk some alcohol afterwards and initially pleaded not guilty, but he has now pleaded guilty.”

Morrison, who is set to start a new job, gave a reading of 63mcg of alcohol in breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Paul McAlindon, defending, conceded forensic analysis could not prove Morrison’s claim that post-crash alcohol consumption had given the high reading.

Mr McAlindon added: "He did enter a not guilty plea on the basis that he had drunk alcohol after he drove. He had drunk some alcohol before driving.

"He always said that he had drunk some alcohol. There was nobody else involved in the collision. He was somewhat dazed.

"He went home but he rang his employer straightaway and then called the police, and they came to arrest him.

"He thought that he was ok to drive but clearly, he wasn’t. I accept there’s an aggravating feature that there was a collision."

Morrison, who has single previous conviction, was also fined £135 and must pay £105 court costs and a £54 victim surcharge