Bicker drink-driver dozed off with engine running in Kirton High Street

A drink-driver almost three times the limit dozed off with the engine running.

James Moorcroft had just eaten a takeaway in the car and drunk some cans of beer, Boston Magistrates’ Court heard on Wednesday.

CCTV operators spotted him returning to a Daihatsu Fourtrak parked on zigzag lines outside a pizza and kebab shop in High Street, Kirton.

When police arrived, the 35-year-old was asleep in the driver’s seat with keys in the ignition.

“He appeared to be drooling,” said prosecutor Michael Little. “He still had a seatbelt on and an open can of alcohol in his hand.”

Police roused him and a dog in the passenger seat ran off.

“So that had to be recovered and put back in the vehicle,” Mr Little added.

Moorcroft’s roadside reading of 80 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath had risen to 102 by the time he gave an evidential sample in custody. The legal limit is 35.

The defendant, of Hoffleet Road, Bicker, pleaded guilty to drink-driving.

The court heard that he got ten penalty points in February 2022 for being drunk in charge of a vehicle.

Phillipa Chatterton, mitigating, said her client had had a “very difficult time” with the death of his father and a serious health issue for another family member.

On the night of the offence he’d had a couple of beers with friends after dealing with cattle he owned. He then stopped at the takeaway and had already bought some alcohol.

She added: “He’d eaten the takeaway [in the car]. He was there for quite some period of time and had fallen asleep.”

Moorcroft was banned for two years, which can be cut with completion of a rehabilitation course, fined £583 and ordered to pay £233 victim surcharge and £85 costs.