A MAN drove home after drinking because he was in a less drunken state than his friend, a court heard.
Timothy Wise claimed he gave into pressure to drive back to his Kirkburton home following a night out.
However the 27-year-old was flagged down by police and arrested for drink-driving.
He admitted a charge of driving over the prescribed limit at Kirklees magistrates yesterday.
The bench was told that the offence happened at just after 3am on January 14.
CID officers in an unmarked vehicle spotted a Mercedes Vito being driven at speed along Wakefield Road at Dalton.
They stopped Wise, of Cowcliffe Hill Road in Cowcliffe, and noticed that his breath smelt of booze.
Wise provided a positive roadside breath test, was arrested and taken to the police station.
He gave further samples which showed he had 56 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The limit is 35.
Sonia Kidd, mitigating, said that the car belonged to Wise’s friend.
She said: “He had no intention of driving.
“His friend was in a worse state and Mr Wise, given the pressure and the fact they had no money to pay for a taxi, succumbed to his request to drive.
“He had dropped his friend off and was driving home when he was stopped by police.”
Magistrates banned wise from driving for 15 months.
They told him to pay £110 fine, £85 costs and £20 victim surcharge.
