Sunderland man more than three times drink drive limit when he took wife for a spin on three-wheel motorbike

George Kay, 60, of Exmouth Street, Carley Hill, was spotted downing a can of cider in Sunderland city centre by CCTV operators at 8.20am on Friday, April 24, a court heard.

They alerted police, but Kay drove off on his Honda motor before they could arrive to quiz him, carrying his spouse along for the ride, magistrates in South Tyneside were told.

But prosecutor Grace Taylor said they caught up with him moments later in Fawcett Street – and the biker gave a reading of 104 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

His single can consumption came the morning after a heavy drinking session which he had not adequately slept off, it was said.

Unhappily for Taylor, two breath tests of better precision, on a CAMIC device at Southwick police station, revealed his alcohol levels had shot up to 123 microgrammes.

That figure raises magistrates’ sentencing powers to the level of a minimum 12-week prison term, which could be suspended, the court heard.

Magistrates have handed him an interim driving ban ahead of the Probation Service compiling a report into the reasons behind his crime.

Ms Taylor said: “At about 8.20am a man was seen by CCTV operators drinking a can of cider, and they contacted the police.

“The police arrive to see him drive away on the motor vehicle with a woman, who was his wife, but he was quickly stopped. He gave a positive roadside breath test.”

Annalisa Moscadini, defending, said: “This was a situation where he had been drinking the night before rather heavily.

“He accepts that the next morning he had a can of cider. He had been to sleep and didn’t think that he was intoxicated.

“He blew 104 at the roadside and 123 at the station. What you normally find is that it goes down, but it went up. It does make a difference to sentencing.”

Kay was granted unconditional bail to appear for sentencing at the same court on Monday, July 20.

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