'˜R' driver was caught out '˜the morning after'

Patrick Brian McKerr (26), Hawthorne Drive, Portadown, was also fined £200 for excess alcohol in breath on April 9 this year and fined £50 for not displaying ‘R’ plates.

The court heard that police received a report of a car at houses at the junction of Flush Place and Hamilton Street in Lurgan.

The defendant was spotted in an alleyway and admitted he had been driving. There was a smell of alcohol on his breath.

McKerr failed a preliminary test and an evidential breath test gave a reading of 56.

He had passed his test on August 15 and was a restricted driver but there were no ‘R’ plates displayed on the vehicle.

He said he had panicked and ran off but would have contacted the police later.

A solicitor representing the defendant said he had been drinking the night before and thought he was okay to drive.

She added that McKerr would say a tyre had blown out and he had pushed the car off the road to the side of a property.

District Judge, Mr Mervyn Bates, said what concerned him was that the defendant had been driving with excess alcohol so shortly after passing his test.