Portadown drink driver handed seven-year disqualification after 'driving all over the road' on M1
A Co Armagh motorist has been warned by a district judge that if he appeared before the court again he would go to jail.
Judge Francis Rafferty heard that three separate calls had been made to police by motorists regarding how a mustard coloured jeep was being driven on the M1 Motorway near the Loughgall junction on the afternoon of April 25 this year.
Stephen Anderson, aged 58, of Blackisland Road, Portadown, was given a four-month jail sentence, suspended for three years, and disqualified from driving for seven years for driving while having consumed excess alcohol, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance.
Prosecuting counsel told Dungannon Magistrates Court that the callers stated the jeep was driving all over the road and clipped the central reservation.
She said police later located the jeep at an off-licence at Ballynakilly Road, Coalisland, and checks on police systems showed the defendant had been disqualified at Lisburn Magistrates Court on November 27, 2025.
The lawyer said Anderson was arrested and taken into custody where he provided an evidential specimen of breath showing an alcohol reading of 111 mcgs per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 mcgs.
A defence lawyer stressed Anderson is attempting to challenge his alcohol addiction.
He pointed out that it is an addiction that the defendant “will have to battle hard”.
Counsel said he is in a relationship and the couple have a 10-month old son together.
The lawyer pleaded with the court to give the defendant an opportunity as opposed to a direct custodial sentence.