Subscribe to trusted local news
If you are accessing this story via Facebook but you are a subscriber then you will be unable to access the story. Facebook wants you to stay and read in the app and your login details are not shared with Facebook. If you experience problems with accessing the news but have subscribed, please contact subscriptions@thestrayferret.co.uk. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever. By subscribing, you can help us get the story right.
- Subscription costs less than £1 a week with an annual plan.
Already a subscriber? Log in here.
16
Mar
Pateley man who was almost three-times the limit had near-miss with bridge
A Pateley Bridge man has admitted to being almost three-times the drink-drive limit.
Robert Wilson, 39, pleaded guilty to one offence of drink-driving during a hearing at Harrogate Magistrates Court on Thursday (March 12).
Alison Whiteley, prosecuting, told the court police saw Wilson travelling along Pateley Bridge’s High Street in the early hours of February 21.
As Wilson was driving, he drifted into the opposite lane and “nearly collided with a bridge” in the town.
Police stopped Wilson, who is of an address in Pateley Bridge, and could immediately smell alcohol on him.
He was slurring his words and unsteady on his feet, the court heard.
Ms Whiteley said the defendant was arrested after providing a positive roadside breath test at 12.30am, before recording 95 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath at the police station at 2.45am.
The legal limit is just 35 micrograms.
Defendant has struggled with alcohol misuse for years
Sean Wilson, defending, reminded the magistrates Wilson had admitted the offence at the first opportunity.
He said the defendant, who has no previous convictions, suffers with post-traumatic stress disorder after a relative was jailed when he was 18.
Wilson [defendant] also struggles with “severe anxiety and depression”, the court heard, and has been dependent on alcohol for several years.
The defence told the court:
Mr Wilson has been seeing North Yorkshire Horizons [a council-owned addiction recovery service] voluntarily since last year and is due to start a detox next week.
The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.
Wilson will return to Harrogate Magistrates Court on May 8 for a sentence hearing.
He was banned from driving in the interim.
0