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One year ban for drink driver who tested below the legal limit

Expert report later showed he was 1.5 times over

A court's heard how a driver - whose breath and blood both tested below the legal limit - was later estimated to have been almost one-and-a-half times over it.

Fifty-seven-year-old Phillip John Heaney, of Beach Street, appeared before magistrates at Douglas courthouse.

He admitted drink-driving at Archallagan on 9 October last year - on that date he'd crashed his Ford Fiesta at around 10am.

Police arrived at the scene a short time later and suspected Heaney had been drink-driving – he told them he'd had two pints of lager the night before.

A roadside breath test showed he was under the limit and he agreed to be tested at Police Headquarters where he again passed a breath test.

A blood sample also came back negative but an expert report commissioned by police said at the time of the crash he'd been around 40 per cent over the limit.

He was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £50 in prosecution costs.

The bench also banned him from driving for one year.

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