A coach driver was three times the drink drive limit as he prepared to navigate a major North Yorkshire junction, York magistrates heard.

Police managed to stop Jason Dale Boocock, 28, before he could take his passenger vehicle onto the A1(M) or the A66 at Scotch Corner, said Helen Davies, prosecuting.

Staff at the nearby Travelodge had alerted them because he had left piles of alcohol bottles and cans in his room when he vacated it.

The court heard he is no longer a coach driver.

The 28-year-old pleaded guilty to failure to provide a specimen of breath.  He was banned from driving for two years and ordered to do 200 hours’ unpaid work under a 12-month community order. He must also pay £85 prosecution costs and a £114 statutory surcharge.

Ms Davies said staff at the Scotch Corner hotel alerted police at 3.40pm on August 31 because they suspected Boocock was drink driving. They had found four beer cans, three cider cans and nine bottles in his hotel room.

When police arrived, Boocock was at the wheel of a coach which was pulling out of the hotel car park. They stopped him and gave him a roadside breath test at 3.55pm, which gave a reading of 110 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

They arrested him and took him to a police station where he refused to blow into a breathalyser which could give a reading that could be used as evidence against him in court.

It is an offence to fail to take a breathalyser test, for which the maximum sentence is the same as failing a breath test.

When magistrates asked if passengers were on the coach when Boocock was drink driving, Ms Davies said she had no evidence that there had been.

Boocock attended court via a video link.  He lives in Lake Road, Morecambe.

He told the court he had nothing to add to what the prosecution had said.

A probation officer told the court: “He tells me he very rarely drinks now.”

Boocock had told her he had had problems at the time when he was caught drink driving. He had lost his job and now had a job within walking distance of his house. He had seen his GP to get help for mental health issues.