Drink driver from Sunderland banned for almost four years for third disqualification in last decade

David Stobbart, 39, of Ramsgate Road, Redhouse, Sunderland, said only, “Nothing, no,” when magistrates asked if he had anything to say about why he had again broken the law.

Stobbart represented himself when he appeared at South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court to plead guilty to drink-driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance.

The court was told he was banned in June 2010 after being found unfit to drive in July 2009.

And he was given a three-year disqualification and a community order in December 2015 for his first drink-driving prosecution.

Prosecutor Clare Irving said Stobbart was stopped by police for his latest offences at around 3.30am on Saturday, January 11.

She told the court: “He’s come to the officer’s attention when he swerves across the road and almost hits a kerb near the Queen Alexandra Bridge, after turning right on the roundabout on the A1231.

“The officer suspects that the defendant had been drinking. He was cautioned and arrested. He’s taken to the police station.”

Mrs Irving said the lowest reading taken on a breath test device was 70 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

The court heard the Seat Ibiza Stobbart was driving, which was stopped on Pallion New Road, belonged to a woman who was not present and did not provide a statement to police.

John Lee, chairman of the bench, made up for Stobbart’s lack of words by telling him: “The messages are out there all the time – don’t drink and drive.

“The general public expects the courts to take a hard line with those who drink and drive, and those who persistently drink and drive.”

Stobbart’s new ban was for the offence of drink-driving, for which he was also fined £200 and must pay £85 court costs and a £32 victim surcharge.

The magistrates imposed no separate penalty on the two other charges.