A candidate in the recent general election has admitted drink driving.
Nigel Anthony Dobson, of Ballachrink Drive in Onchan, who stood in Garff, was stopped and breathalysed on Groudle Road on September 2.
For the prosecution Barry Swain told the court police heading towards the Sea Terminal spotted the defendant’s Renault Megane leaving the Queen’s Hotel, so they spun the panda car round and followed him along King Edward Road onto Groudle Road.
He was pulled over for a ‘routine check’, Mr Swain said.
The 63-year-old failed an initial breath test and said he had finished off a glass of wine minutes earlier. At the police station he produced a breath reading of 52, one and a half times the legal drink drive limit of 35. There was no evidence of poor driving, he added.
Defending him, Paul Rodgers said Dobson, who is the chairman of Garff Commissioners, was banned for drink driving in 2009, then caught driving while disqualified in 2011, when the ban period had expired but he had not yet retaken his test.
Dobson was banned from driving for five years, must take an extended driving test and complete the alcohol rehabilitation course. He was fined £1,000 with £125 costs.