A COACH driver who admitted being almost two times the legal alcohol limit while taking passengers on a shopping trip to York has been sacked.

Patrick Burke, of Cheadle in Cheshire, was ordered to pull his coach over by his own passengers after he hit a bollard near York on December 5.

Barry Hayton, from coach company Hayton’s, confirmed that Mr Burke had been dismissed from his job but that he had previously had “an exemplary record”.

“It’s shocking,” he said. “We have a zero-alcohol policy but on this occasion, he told us for personal reasons, he decided to go and have a drink.

“We back the police totally and anything he gets we’re behind and he deserves. We hope he realises the extent of what he’s done.”

Burke, 52, was breathalysed by police on the A64 at Bilbrough as he was on his way back to Manchester. He will face sentencing at Selby Magistrates’ court on January 12, after admitting drink- driving, driving without due care and attention, failing to stop having collided with a car park bollard and failing to report a collision.