A driver who drank before going to a nursing home to visit his frail mother was caught after his own niece reported him.
Police attended at Pilling House residential home in Skelmanthorpe on July 22, Kirklees magistrates were told.
Douglas Womersley’s niece said that he had been drink-driving and they arrived to find his car parked nearby.
The 52-year-old appeared to be under the influence and was arrested after failing a roadside breath test.
Further breath tests revealed that he had 111 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
This was just over three times the legal limit of 35 microgrammes.
Prosecutor Vanessa Jones said: “He said he’d been out drinking the night before until 3 or 4am, had a hair of the dog the morning after and went to see his mother.”
Womersley, of Railway Court in Clayton West, pleaded guilty to driving while over the prescribed limit and using a vehicle without a valid test certificate.
His solicitor Catherine McCullough explained that his mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and he finds it distressing to go and visit her.
She told magistrates: “Mr Womersley had a drink to make him feel braver in terms of seeing his mum and cope with that meeting due to take place.
“He felt okay to drive and didn’t feel that he was over the limit.
“It was his niece who was at the care home at the time contacted police because she had some concerns.”
Magistrates were told that Womersley, who held a previous conviction for drink-driving, has since sold his vehicle.
They banned him from the road for 24 months.
He will also have to comply with a community order including 100 hours of unpaid work.
Magistrates told him to pay £85 court costs and £85 victim surcharge.
