A DAD was caught drink driving – while his two young children were in the car.

A court heard that Richard Williams, 41, of Pavilion Way, Meltham, was driving his children aged seven and three home on a Saturday afternoon when he was stopped by police.

Tests revealed he was more than three times over the legal drink drive limit.

Williams pleaded guilty to the offence when he appeared before Huddersfield Magistrates yesterday.

Prosecutor Alex Johnson said: “At 3.10pm on Saturday April 18 officers stopped Richard Williams on Huddersfield Road in Meltham while he was driving an Audi car.

“They had received radio reports that he was not fit to be driving.

“He had two children in the car at the time who were aged seven and three.”

He was arrested as a breath test showed he had 119micrograms of alcohol in his breath – the legal limit is 35mg.

He has no previous convictions.

Jonathan Slawinski, defending, said: “He is currently going through a messy divorce.

“He is the sole owner of a new business called Recall Ltd based in Wakefield which he formed in January after 22 years working in the turbo charging industry.

“Recession hit and times are hard.

“He is astounded about the level of alcohol.

“He had not eaten anything for two days and on the Friday night he was left shaken after an accident.

“It shook him up and he had three bottles of wine. He was also mugged in Meltham a few weeks before and suffered two broken ribs.

“That and the culmination of the accident led him to have a drink.

“He will lose his company, he can’t drive to Normanton and he is the sole worker.

“He is utterly ashamed about what’s happened.

“He thought he would be safe driving at 3.10pm but he clearly wasn’t.”

Magistrates banned Williams from driving for 24 months and gave him a 12-month community order. He was also ordered to pay £60 court costs.