‘Very foolish’ man had ‘a lot of alcohol’ before driving to the shops

A 49-year-old has been banned from driving after being caught nearly three times the alcohol limit.Davey Auker, of Mariners Way in North Lynn, was disqualified for 26 months when he appeared at the town’s magistrates’ court on Thursday.He had been driving a Vauxhall ADAM just before 4pm on July 26 as he took a trip to the shops.

CCTV operators determined that he may have been drinking, with the police alerted. An officer attended Auker’s home address shortly afterwards, where he failed a roadside breath test and was arrested.In custody, evidential tests revealed Auker had 104mcg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The legal limit to drive is 35mcg.Mitigating, duty solicitor George Sorrell said: “This is, according to your guidelines, well within the consideration for a community sentence. It is serious enough. “I can tell you that the defendant became unemployed early this year after a career as a heating engineer. He now receives ESA payments and Universal Credit.“It is a very high reading. Should you consider it serious enough to consider a community-based sentence, the defendant would have to be assessed by the probation service.” Mr Sorrell added: “He was only going to the shop. It was a very foolish decision, no doubt caused by the fact that he had consumed quite a lot of alcohol.”Magistrates agreed that Auker’s offence was “well within the community bracket”, but opted to step back from that because his life has been crime-free since 2015.They instead fined him £200, while he will also pay an £80 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.Auker was offered a drink-driving rehabilitation course which, if completed successfully, will reduce his disqualification by 26 weeks.