SOS led to drink charge
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• The transport manager of Wetherby-based AB Couriers, who was called out of bed in the early hours by a driver whose truck was found to be overloaded, was almost twice over the drink-driving limit when he arrived at the weighbridge in a 7.5-tonner.
Steven Lenton admitted the charge when he appeared before Wetherby magistrates. He was banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay fines and costs totalling £250.
Lenton said five of his firm's vehicles were stopped and weighed at the Boston Spa weighbridge on 27 April. He was woken at 03:30hrs by a call from a driver telling him that there were five vehicles at Boston Spa and the police wanted insurance documents. The line went dead and he thought at first there had been an accident. When he arrived with the documents one of the police officers smelt drink: he was breathalysed and arrested.
The court was told that the breathalyser showed 61ing of alcohol; only 9mg short of twice the legal limit.
Lenton said he had been drinking at home in his pyjamas and dressing gown while watching television on the Sunday evening He had no intention of driving and it was the first time he had ever received an emergency call during the night. He reacted without realising that he might have had too much to drink.
Defending, Gordon Richardson asked the magistrates not to disqualify Lenton on the grounds that he had been responding to an emergency. Imposing the ban, the magistrates said that while they had considerable sympathy with the circumstances, they felt that he should have tried to take alternative measures such as calling a taxi.
The hearing of overloading charges and alleged tachograph offences against the firm's two partners, Ian Slorach and Ann Baker, and three of their drivers was adjourned to 19 August.
A fourth driver, Richard Jones, of Harrogate, pleaded guilty to exceeding the permitted gross weight of a two-axled rigid by 11.1%.
Jones said he had asked a traffic examiner whether there were any public weighbridges open at three o'clock in the morning and he was told that there were not.
The magistrates fined Jones £100 with £50 costs.