Police caught Ludlow drink-driver after anonymous tip-off

Magistrates were told that Peter Burnley had been visiting the Bull Hotel in Ludlow to discuss a business proposition when he was stopped on February 23.

Prosecuting, Mrs Kate Price said police had received an anonymous call saying that a man had been drinking in the pub and was about to leave in his blue Skoda Octavia.

Police pulled the car up just metres away from the defendant's home on Temeside, Ludlow.

Mrs Price said that, as Burnley had recently been drinking, police needed to wait 20 minutes before they could offer a roadside breath test, which he then failed.

Burnley admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared before Telford magistrates yesterday.

The court was told his final reading was 53 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit is 35.

Burnley was banned from driving for 12 months but was given the option to reduce the ban with a drink-driver rehabilitation course.

He was fined £100 and told to pay a compulsory victim surcharge of £20, but was spared from prosecution costs because of his limited savings and income.

Burnley, 63, who did not have any representation in the case, told the court that he had been in full-time employment until August last year. He had then become self-employed.

He said he had only taken his car to the pub because he was meeting a client to discuss tools and that normally he would walk or take the bus.

Burnley said that he had been confident that he would pass the breath test and added that he had not been stopped because of erratic driving.

He added that the loss of his driving licence would end his self-employment chances.