A drink-drive scooter rider caught out at breakfast time has been fined and handed a three-year road ban.
Police were tasked with finding Kevin George Bell, 67, on the morning of July 20 after a report that he might be under the influence of alcohol.
Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard he was found sat outside Penrith’s Wetherspoon pub, where he was drinking a pint. He co-operated with all testing procedures. The lower of two evidential readings showed Bell had 56 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal driving limit is 35mcg.
Bell pleaded guilty to riding a Vespa, on Middlegate, while over the drink-drive limit.
The court heard he had a relevant previous conviction dating back to February 2023, for drug-driving. This meant he faced a mandatory minimum ban of three years for committing two similar offences inside a decade.
Bell, unrepresented by a solicitor, was asked to explain why he was over the drink-drive limit on that date. “I didn’t think I was,” he replied. “It must have been the morning after the night before.”
At the Penrith Wetherspoon pub, when approached by police, he had only had a mouthful of beer. “I only went there for my breakfast. I didn’t get that either,” he told the court, referring to his arrest.
Bell, of Woodland Close, Hackthorpe, near Penrith, was fined £120 for the offence.
He was handed a three-year road ban but accepted the offer of a place on a drink-drive rehabilitation course. If completed by a specified date, this will reduce the length of his disqualification by 36 weeks.
