Favour for club regular costs Good Samaritan his driving licence

A community’s Good Samaritan has lost his licence after doing a favour for a regular at the social club he owns and runs.Kevin Edwards, 60, of Snowdrop Close, West Lynn, was caught drink-driving on July 11 when he was taking the woman to McDonald’s in the early hours of the morning.Edwards, pleaded guilty to drink-driving when he appeared before Lynn magistrates on Thursday.

The court heard from prosecutor Asif Akram that a member of the public had contacted police to report a male driving near McDonald’s in a poor manner.Police attended and saw Edwards pull his Audi car into a parking space. Officers spoke to Edwards and they could smell alcohol and stated that he was slurring his words.A roadside test proved positive and he was arrested. A blood sample was taken and gave a reading of 162mg in 100ml of blood – double the legal limit of 80mg. Alison Muir, mitigating, said he was a generous person who did a lot for the community organising charity events, helping with a Christmas party for older people, and during the pandemic, delivering medication to those who were unable to get out.He also helps run a football club for children having set it up. She said: “It was that generosity that got him into this position.”Ms Muir said one of his regulars wanted to get a McDonald’s and he offered to drive her the short way to get it.She said: “He never thought he was going to be over the limit. She had been drinking and he thought the smell of alcohol the officers could smell was coming from her. “He felt fine to drive otherwise he would not have done so.”Ms Muir added that as a result of this incident, he would be letting a lot of people down, and he was particularly upset that he would not be able to do his bit for the older people’s Christmas party this year.Magistrates banned him for 17 months but offered him the chance to reduce that by 17 weeks if he completes a drink-drive awareness course.He was also fined £250, with £85 costs and £100 victim surcharge.