Bulwell man too drunk for breath test spared a driving ban

A Bulwell man who was too drunk to give a breath sample at the police station has been spared a driving ban, Nottingham Magistrates Court heard.
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Police officers found Andrew Bell's car parked on double yellow lines, on Southey Street, Nottingham, at 11.30pm, on March 11, said prosecutor Katherine Wilson.

Bell was in the driver's seat, smelling of alcohol, with two open bottles of booze by the passenger's seat, she added.

He was slurring his words and had to be stopped from falling over. A roadside breath-test revealed he had 125 mcgs of alcohol, when the legal limit is 35 mcgs.

Read the latest cases from Nottingham Magistrates Court.Read the latest cases from Nottingham Magistrates Court.
Read the latest cases from Nottingham Magistrates Court.

But at the station he began banging his head against the wall and trying to walk out during the formal intoxilyser test.

Nicola Draper, mitigating, said Bell, of previous good character, was a responsible man who worked for ten years as the manager of a Wetherspoon pub.

But the court heard he was laid off from a council job last year, which had a huge impact on his mental health.

Ms Draper said Bell ran into debt and was unable to see his children because of lockdown. He has been diagnosed with depression so severe it brings on "stroke-like" symptoms.

She said he didn't plan to drive that evening and would have slept in his car.

Bell, 46, of Grindon Crescent, Bulwell, admitted failing to provide a specimen for analysis, on Friday.

Magistrates decided against a driving ban as this would impact on his ablity to work and pay off his debts.

Instead they endorsed his licence with ten points, fined him £360 and ordered £85 costs and a £36 surcharge.

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