A drink-driver who said that a Muslim religious festival made it impossible for him to get a taxi home has been banned from the road for more than two years.

Lee Coupe downed 10 pints but claimed that he could not order a taxi because of the Eid celebrations.

He then caught the attention of police because he was driving too slowly and breath tests revealed that he was more than three times over the legal limit.

At a previous hearing held at Kirklees Magistrates’ Court the 45-year-old pleaded guilty to driving while over the prescribed limit.

On June 17 police were driving along Upper Road in Dewsbury when their attention was drawn to a Citroen van being driven by Coupe.

Video Loading

He pulled out onto the carriageway but due to the manner of his driving other vehicles were forced to slow down, prosecutor Andy Dinning said.

Coupe was arrested and taken into custody where breath tests showed that he had 118 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

This is more than three times the legal limit of 35 microgrammes.

At a hearing held at the Huddersfield court earlier this month Coupe’s solicitor Rachel Sharpe explained that he had been at the pub that evening and handed his car keys over the landlord.

Stock: A police officer preparing a breathalyser test.

He then took them off him to go and get some more money and failed to hand them back in.

Coupe remained in the pub and had 10 pints of lager, said Mrs Sharpe.

She told magistrates: “He said he had no intention to drive but then phoned for a taxi and realised that it was Eid and he couldn’t get a taxi home.

“Then he made the stupid decision to drive himself.”

Coupe, of Millbrook Gardens in Dewsbury, described himself as a five or six in terms of drunkenness and said he felt fresh but not unable to drive.

He works all over the country with his role in construction and has had to use the train to get to work since his drink-driving conviction.

Magistrates ordered him to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and banned him from driving for 26 months.

He will have to pay £85 court costs and £85 victim surcharge.