A MOTORIST could be jailed after he drove round the corner to his local convenience store for a bacon sandwich, York Magistrates' Court heard.

Richard James Hayes had never been in trouble with the police before they stopped him close to his home on June 14, said Robert Campbell, prosecuting.

A breath test revealed he was nearly four times the drink drive limit.

When they showed him the breathalyser, he said: “There’s no point, I will be well over the limit.”

Mr Campbell said national sentencing guidelines state that courts should start by considering a 12-week prison sentence for drivers with similar breath test readings before taking into account any aggravating or mitigating factors and applying a discount for pleading guilty.

Hayes, 54, of Sycamore Avenue, Eggborough, pleaded guilty to drink driving.

York magistrates adjourned his case for probation officers to prepare a pre-sentence report on him. They told him the bench that sentences him will consider all options including locking him up.

Hayes was released on bail and banned from driving. He will learn his sentence and how long his ban will last on October 15.

He represented himself and said he had gone to get a bacon sandwich at the local convenience store. He had just finished it when police knocked on his car window.

He had sciatica which had been so painful on June 14, he couldn’t walk and had had to drive round to the store.

Mr Campbell said an eye-witness alerted police when she saw Hayes get into his car at 12.30pm.  He was unsteady on his feet and was shaking and she wondered if he was having some kind of medical episode. But she also suspected he was drink driving so she rang police.

Officers found Hayes’ car parked outside a Londis store in Eggborough.

The breath test gave a reading of 132 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

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Hayes said his arrest had shocked him into giving up drinking altogether.

“I had never been arrested before in my life, never been locked up,” he said. “When you are in a cell for 12 hours you have a lot of time to think.”

He had got help from the drink and drug rehabilitation agency Horizon.

Giving up alcohol had led to him being in and out of hospital because it had “made matters worse”, he said.