Drink driver created his own problem

Kristian Herron, whose address was given as The Old Golf Links, Portadown, was banned from driving for 12 months last Wednesday at Craigavon Magistrates Court.

He was also fined £200 and ordered to pay a £15 offender’s levy for driving with excess alcohol in his breath on December 19 last year.

The court heard that a police patrol in the Portadown area at 10pm saw a Jaguar car with two males on board.

They followed it and it failed to stop at a solid line.

Police spoke to the defendant, who was the driver, in Cecil Street.

After failing a preliminary breath test Herron recorded a reading of 56 microgrammes in an evidential test - the legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

A barrister representing the defendant said his client had been in Belfast carrying out Christmas shopping.

He explained that his client needed the car because his father was quite ill and relied on his son to take him to hospital appointments.

District Judge Amanda Brady said that knowing that the defendant shouldn’t have taken a drink and got in a car.

It was a problem he had created, she said.

She certified him suitable for the drink drivers course which, if properly completed, would reduce his ban by a quarter.