'˜Unfortunate act of kindness' led to driving ban

Aidan McSheffrey of Finsbury Street, Alford, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared at Boston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (August 1).

Jim Clare, prosecuting, told the court that in the late evening of July 11, police saw McSheffrey driving a VW Transporter which pulled off the A16 onto London Road and pull over.

When they approached the vehicle, they saw McSheffrey helping his passenger, who was slumped over, into a house.

McSheffrey provided a positive breath test with a reading of 74 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, more than twice the legal limit.

He told officers he had drunk some lager but had been driving his boss home as he was ‘unwell from drinking too much alcohol’.

Tony Davies, in mitigation, said McSheffrey’s boss had felt unwell and so foolishly he had driven him home.

“If he had ordered a taxi this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.

Banning McSheffrey from driving for 19 months, the magistrates said an ‘unfortunate act of kindness had backfired completely’.

He was offered the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course which will reduce the period of the ban by 19 weeks, and was fined £350 and ordered to pay £140 in costs and charges.