A LOWERHOUSES man has appeared in court after driving drunk.

John Wilson, of Fanny Moor Lane, admitted the offence when he appeared before Kirklees magistrates.

He blamed spiked drinks on his being more than twice the legal drink-drive limit.

Linda Fowler, prosecuting, said that the incident happened on Leeds Road in the early hours of January 15.

She said: “Officers were on patrol when their attention was drawn to a vehicle which emerged from a fast food outlet.

“As a result of this they had to take evasive action to avoid a collision.’’

The prosecutor said that the police followed and stopped the Vauxhall Vectra being driven by Wilson.

He smelled strongly of intoxicants and was asked to take a roadside breath test.

Wilson was then arrested and taken to the police station where he provided further samples.

These revealed that he had 76 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

The legal limit is 35mg.

The Huddersfield bench was told that Wilson, 53, had decided against making a special reasons argument.

Wilson, who was not represented, explained that the alcohol level was so high because his drinks had been spiked.

He told magistrates: “I was unable to prove this because my two witnesses are in Afghanistan.

“This case has been going on for far too long and if I had said this at the beginning and taken a ban, the ban would have almost been up by now.”

Magistrates were told that DVLA records showed that Wilson held only a provisional licence, but he denied this was the case.

Magistrates banned him from driving for 20 months.

They also fined him £300 and ordered him to pay £85 and a £15 victim surcharge.