Drink driver banned from roads after driving wrong way down slip road into oncoming traffic
A Washington motorist who drove the wrong way down a slip road into oncoming traffic while over three times the booze limit has been handed a 28-month ban.
Darren McCreary, 58, forced another motorist to stop due to his antics on the A182 Washington Highway on the night of Friday, February 27, a court heard.
Police were summoned and a breath test in adjoining Bonemill Lane showed McCreary, of Coverdale Avenue, Concord, Washington, was heavily intoxicated.
The jobless bathroom fitter had driven to play snooker with friends and intended not to drink but ended up doing so.
And because he had left his tools in his Ford Transit van, he scrapped his plan to get a taxi and instead drove.
Prosecutor Holly Clegg told magistrates in South Tyneside: “The defendant was driving down the slip road in the wrong direction.
“This caused a car to stop which was travelling in the opposite direction.
“The police attended, and they spoke to the defendant. He said he had had a few drinks and admitted driving under the influence.
“He had admitted liability at the first opportunity. He has no relevant driving offences.”
McCreary pleaded guilty to a charge of drink driving. He gave a reading for alcohol in breath of 117mcg. The legal limit is 35mcg.
In a pre-sentence report, the Probation Service said McCreary had stopped drinking for six weeks upon being diagnosed with depression in January.
But it said the married dad broke his alcohol drought on the snooker night out, a blunder which had left him “devastated” and “deeply remorseful” for driving.
Probation added McCreary had not drunk since the offence and was usually only a social drinker.
Stephen Hamill, defending, said the report covered all angles, adding: “There’s nothing really that I can add.”
However, he did ask his client be given the chance to sit a ban-reducing drink driver rehabilitation programme.
Magistrates agreed to that but also handed McCreary a 12-month community order, with 80 hours of unpaid work.
He must pay a £114 victim surcharge and £85 court costs.