Drink driver told cops ‘I have had a few pints’ after being stopped while more then three times the limit

Michael Grey, 35, pleaded guilty to driving with alcohol above the limit when he appeared before South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court.

Paul Doney, prosecuting, said Grey, of Lesbury Close, Chester-le-Street, was arrested on Gateshead’s Lamesley Road following a report of a BMW being driven in an erratic manner.

He said officers stopped the vehicle and it appeared the defendant was drunk.

He said: “He was placed in the rear of the vehicle, officers smelled intoxicating alcohol.

“He said ‘I have had a few pints’.”

When he was tested Grey was found to have 123 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, with the limit being 35.

Robin Ford, defending, said this was not a case of someone purposefully going out and drinking and getting behind the wheel.

He said: “This is not one of those situations where someone has gone out in the car and decided to drive. This situation is slightly more complicated.”

Mr Ford said Grey and his partner had been going through some relationship difficulties at the time of the offence on November 17 and he had been staying in the flat above a restaurant where he is the head chef.

He said on the evening in question Grey had been working at the restaurant and afterwards had had a drink with colleagues because he wasn’t planning on going anywhere.

Mr Ford said: “He got a phone call from his partner to say one of the children, who had previously had foot and mouth, and she feared it had returned.

“The most important thing in his mind for him was to get back to the family.”

He said Grey thought he would be safe to drive to the family home but was stopped by police at around 11.20pm.

Mr Ford said: “He knows what he did was wrong. It was a risk he took because he had a phone call that concerned him.

“In that moment his decision making was flawed.”

Grey was given an eight-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, and banned from driving for 30 months.