A wheelchair-bound former chauffeur for the Emir of Bahrain has been banned from the roads for three years after admitting drink driving.

Stephen Tipling, 54, of Green Bank Court, Baildon, pleaded guilty when he appeared before Bingley magistrates.

Graham Anderson, prosecuting, said police stopped a Renault, driven by Tipling, on Otley Road, Shipley. He said Tipling failed a roadside breath test and after his arrest was found to have 59 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, 24 micrograms above the legal limit of 35. He said Tipling had been disqualified following a similar incident in 1992.

Mark Newell, mitigating, said Tipling, who lives in sheltered housing and has been left wheelchair-bound by angina and emphysema, had gone on a weekly bingo outing with a neighbour.

As usual his client had drunk two pints of beer during the evening, add-ing it was possible the 4.5 per cent strength of the lager had put him over the limit. He said though the medication his client was on did not affect the breath test reading it may have contributed to giving someone the impression he had been the ''worse for wear''.

He said Tipling had not worked for five years because of his medical condition but had previouslyworked as a driver for the Emir of Bahrain.

He said a ban would be a ''devastating blow'', adding: "He lives in a fairly isolated area and this will leave him totally reliant on others to get about.''

He was banned for three years, fined £100 with £50 costs and accepted an offer to take a drink-driving rehabilitation course, the completion of which could reduce his ban by nine months.