Kirton man facing retirement and family issues caught drink-driving on Boxing Day while banned from the road

John Joy, 71, of Edinburgh Crescent, appeared at Boston Magistates’ Court on Wednesday in relation to the incident from December 26.

The court was told police received reports of a Citroen C1 swerving all over the road near Alford.

When officers stopped the vehicle in question and opened the driver’s door, the man behind the wheel – Joy – reached for a bottle of drink on the seat next to him and began to unscrew it.

Lottie Tyler, prosecuting for the Crown, said: “Police told him not to, but he continued so they placed him in handcuffs.”

“He was unsteady on his feet as they led him to the police vehicle,” she continued.

It emerged that Joy was currently disqualified from driving and had two convictions for drink-driving related offences.

He failed to give a roadside test, but in custody gave a reading of 82 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

When his case went before district judge Peter Veits on Wednesday, Joy had already pleaded guilty to four offences relating to the incident, namely: driving while disqualified, drink-driving, failing to co-operate with a roadside breath test, and driving without insurance.

A pre-sentence report by the probation service said that Joy had suffered mentally since retiring five years earlier and going from being very busy to doing nothing.

There were family problems, too, the court was told.

In mitigation, Helen Coney said: “He felt he needed to get out of the house and stupidly decided to take those keys. He welcomes intervention from probation.

“He would like to do unpaid work as a route into doing voluntary work in the longer term.”

Joy was disqualified from driving for four years. He was also ordered to do 100 hours’ unpaid work and pay £199 in costs and victim surcharge.