A DRIVER is today off the roads after members of the public spotted him weaving from lane to lane on the York Outer Ring Road and alerted police.

James Nolan, 48, was three and a half times the drink drive limit, said Kathryn Walters, prosecuting.

When police arrested him, they found him in an intoxicated state and his car smelt of alcohol.

Mrs Walters said Nolan deliberately refused to take a breath test at Fulford Road Police Station to provide evidence of how much he was over the limit.

But a roadside breath test where he was stopped gave a reading of 122 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Nolan told a court probation officer that he had only had two beers that day, at lunchtime, though he had been drinking the night before.

He had bottles with him in the passenger footwell of the car which he was taking to be recycled. He claimed that the bottles were the source of the smell of alcohol in the car.

Defence barrister Cainan Lonsdale said Nolan had not deliberately refused to give a breath test but had been unable to provide sufficient breath for a full sample because of his anxiety.

York Magistrates. Court heard that he frequently stays with his partner in York and lives in Millfields, Ossett, Wakefield.

Nolan initially denied a charge of failure to provide a sample of breath at the police station but changed his plea on the day of his trial.

He was made subject to a 12-week nightly curfew between 9pm and 6am and banned from driving for 18 months. He was also ordered to pay a £114 statutory surcharge and £125 prosecution costs.

Mrs Walters said Nolan was seen “weaving from lane to lane” on April 22. He had a previous conviction in 1999 for failure to stop after an accident and driving without insurance but no offences since.

Mr Lonsdale said Nolan had changed his plea after an expert report commissioned by the defence did not support his case that anxiety prevented him from giving the breath sample in the police station.

He was a carer for his mother and he also had significant health problems. He needed his car to travel to his mother, who lives in York, and for his work. He drove 18,000 miles a year without incident.