Drink-driving Army Reserve soldier claims drink was 'laced' with alcohol

The defendant has been banned from driving for a year.

Burnley magistrates were told how Charles Kempsey, who is also a member of the 4th Battalion the Parachute Regiment, was seen going onto the motorway at about 10am on a Sunday morning.

He blew 54 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35. Kempsey, of Langroyd Road in Colne, admitted driving with excess alcohol on the M65 at Burnley on August 13th.

The 32-year-old has now been banned for a year. He was fined £500 and told to pay £85 costs and a £50 victim surcharge.

Mrs Alex Mann, prosecuting, told the hearing Kempsey had no passengers and there was no suggestion of bad driving. She said: "The worst part of it is he was heading onto the motorway."

The defendant, who was not represented by a solicitor, told the court he did not have an issue with drink and it was only the second time he had had alcohol this year.

Kempsey continued: "I had been to sleep. I thought I was OK to drive home." The defendant said he had a drink of coke in the morning, where he was staying, which he understood was laced with alcohol.

He told the bench: "I can't prove it, but would like you to take it into consideration. I don't believe I had had that much to drink."