Willoughby man drove while ‘three times over limit’

Ian Michael Lillis, 39, of Alford Road, Willoughby, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared at Boston Magistrates’ Court last Wednesday (May 1).

Marie Stace, prosecuting, said he was stopped by police at 3.25pm on April 9 in his Volvo on the A16 at Burwell because he was not driving in a straight line. He was found to have two flat tyres and told police he had hit a bollard.

After a positive breath test, he was arrested and provided a reading of 118 microgrammes of alcohol in his breath. The legal limit is 35.

In mitigation, Michelle Elvin said Lillis was ‘at a low ebb’ and was on medication for depression.

She said he had been going to stay at a hotel but his room was not ready so he had gone into the bar and drunk and then decided to drive to a different hotel. She added that he had referred himself to Addaction.

The magistrates banned Lillis from driving for 28 months but offered him the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course, which will reduce the period of the ban by 28 weeks. He was also ordered to observe an electronically monitored curfew between 8pm and 6am for six weeks, and to pay £170 in costs.