Man caught drink driving vintage tractor 200m from his home says he was going at 8mph

Robert Davies had been at a tractor event and was on his way home when police stopped him after a member of the public reported him.

The 46-year-old of Nantiago, Llanfair Waterdine claimed his vintage blue and orange Fordson tractor has a top speed of 15 mph and it had taken him half an hour to travel the three or four miles home from the event.

He admitted drink driving in his tractor on April 7 this year on an unclassified road at Llanfair Waterdine, when he appeared at Llandrindod Wells Magistrates Court on Tuesday (June 16).

Prosecuting, Victoria Vasey said police attended after a member of the public suspected Davies of drink driving.

He was asked to give a roadside breath sample and complied; it showed 60 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millitres of breath, the legal limit being 35 micrograms per 100ml.

Ms Vasey said Davies’s last conviction for drink driving was in 2011.

Mitigating, Gurleen Kaur said: “He has given an early guilty plea. He was at a tractor event and following a few drinks he got some food and he thought he would be under the limit, which of course, he was not.

“A report was made by a member of the public and the police attended when he was just 200 metres from home.

“He says his vintage tractor has a top speed of 15mph and he was doing about 8mph. It was only three or four miles from the event to his property and it took him 30 minutes to get home. He is remorseful for this incident.”

Ms Kaur said Davies could lose his job as a result of the matter and an elderly man who is like a father to him lives with him and he will also suffer as a result of the incident.

Magistrates fined him £230 and banned him from driving for 17 months, but he was offered the chance to attend a drink-drive rehabilitation course.

He will also have to pay a victim surcharge of £92 and £85 costs.