Drink driver caught after trip to pick up pizza

Patrick Fisher (50), of Ard-Na-Maine in Cullybackey, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol in his breath at Galgorm Road in Ballymena in relation to April 16 this year.

A prosecutor told Ballymena Magistrates Court police had gone to the defendant’s home after they were made aware of a possible intoxicated Volkswagen Golf driver who had collected a pizza at Domino’s in Ballymena. The defendant owned the vehicle and police saw it parked in his drive way at 1.30pm. Fisher admitted to police he had collected a pizza after drinking the night before. When taken to Antrim Police Station the defendant had a reading of 76 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit is 35. A defence solicitor said his client has been driving for 33 years with no record and a completely clear licence. The court heard he had worked in an investment bank in London for many years and came home to Cullybackey five years ago to care for his parents. He said the defendant is “very well known” in the area and is a director of Cullybackey Community Partnership “which does a lot of work in the village both in relation to the layout and flowers, etc, and to care for vulnerable people in that community”. The lawyer said in April the defendant had a “very bad week” and had been at hospital with a family member and when he came home he had been drinking “into the early hours” and thought he was OK to drive the short distance to Ballymena after lunch-time the next day. The solicitor said, fortunately, there had been no accident and the defendant had not been carrying any passengers.

The lawyer said his client had co-operated fully with police and “made a full admission to the police at the door”.

The defendant was banned from the roads for a year and fined £300.