Cookstown drink driver tells police ‘I drink to help me sleep, I don’t give a damn’

A Cookstown driver who ‘made a foolish decision’ to drive home from a bar has been banned from driving for two years.

By The Newsroom

Published 26th Sep 2015, 10:45 BST

Police stopped Alaister Gordon, 51, from Claggan Park, on Orritor Road on September 1 after they observed him swerving slightly on the road.

He failed a roadside test and was taken for the full breath test in Dungannon where the former civil servant told police: “I drink to help me sleep. I don’t give a damn.”

Unfortunately the testing equipment was not working and Mr Gordon refused to give consent for a blood sample to be taken.

“This was effectively drink driving,” Mr Colin Donnelly, defending, told the court. “He had already proffered two breath samples and believed he had helped (the police) enough.”

Judge Meehan handed down a fine of £300 and a two-year driving ban. He did, however, agree to reduce the ban upon completion of a drink driver’s course.

Police