Reported after call at filling station to get cigarettes

Jonathan Nugent (26). whose address was given as Mill Hill, Waringstown, was fined £175 last Wednesday at Craigavon Magistrates Court for driving with excess alcohol in breath on February 12 this year.

He was also banned for 12 months and ordered to pay a £15 offender’s levy.

If he completes a drink driving course his disqualification would be reduced to nine months.

The court heard that at 2.25am at Bridge Street filling station in Portadown it was brought to police attention that a motorist had consumed alcohol.

Nugent drove onto Bridge Street and was pulled over by police.

A roadside breath test gave a reading of 79 and an evidential test in the police station was 81 - the legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 milliteres of breath.

A solicitor representing the defendant said he had been driving for nine years with no previous convictions.

She explained that Nugent had been at his girlfriend’s house where alcohol had been consumed.

The solicitor added that the defendant had intended to stay overnight but there had been a disagreement and he had gone to the shop to get cigarettes.

District Judge, Mr Mervyn Bates, said the reading was the high end of moderate but the defendant had no history of offending in motoring matters.