Mablethorpe restaurateur, 70, banned for drink driving

David George Ives, of Seaholme Road in Mablethorpe, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared at Skegness Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (August 23).

The court heard he was seen driving erratically in Brickyard Lane at 11.15pm on August 6 and was stopped on the A11 at Trusthorpe driving towards Sutton on Sea. He gave a positive breath test of 51 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Ives, who was unrepresented, told the court he was ‘totally guilty’.

He told the court: “I’d been waiting an hour for a taxi and my wife was ill at home.

“I had one and a half pints in the pub and another waiting for the taxi as I didn’t think I would be driving.”

He claimed he was not driving erratically, but was driving around potholes in the road.

He said the driving ban would ‘really affect my business as a restaurateur’.

Ives was banned from driving for 14 months but was offered the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course which will reduce the period of his ban by 14 weeks.

He was also fined £400 and ordered to pay £125 in costs and charges.