Craigavon judge bans DPD delivery van driver who was over the limit after 'drinking into the early hours the night before'
‘Some day cars will come with breathalysers’ a Craigavon judge predicted before banning a man for drink driving.
William John Hanna, aged 52, from Ashgrove Manor, Portadown, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates Court charged with driving with excess alcohol.
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The court heard that on December 12 last year at around 5.40pm, police were on patrol in Portadown when a DPD delivery van came to their attention as it pulled into the Drumcree Road.
They stopped the vehicle on the Ballyoran Road, Portadown and smelled intoxicating liquor from the driver, who was the defendant.
The court heard he failed a preliminary breath test and was taken to Lurgan Custody Suite. An evidential breath test was 64 micrograms of alcohol to 100 millilitres of breath. The legal alcohol breath limit in NI is 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
Hanna’s solicitor Mr John McCamley said his client apologises to the court. He said the defendant will ‘suffer greatly’ as he is a DPD driver.
“This is a salutary lesson to those who drink the night before and go out,” the solicitor said.
“This was at 20 to 6 in the evening and Mr Hanna informed me that he was drinking into the early hours the night before. It was still showing up as an evidential reading of 64 at 20 to 6 the next evening. It is a lesson for everybody, including Mr Hanna,” he said.
District Judge Michael Ranaghan said: “One day cars will come with breathalysers built in. This will have a significant effect on you given your employment.”
Hanna was banned for 12 months and fined £185 plus the £15 offender levy.