A GLUSBURN man who police stopped on suspicious of driving at excessive speed has pleaded guilty to being twice the drink-driving limit.

Skipton magistrates were told that Matthew Stead, 26, of Townend Place, was stopped on the A629 near Cross Hills just before 6am on March 8 this year.

A roadside breath test proved positive and he was later found to have 72 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Defending, John Mewies said Stead was a duty manager at a hotel in Skipton. He had been working until 11pm and had arranged to meet some friends in town who were already in a pub.

He had left his car in his work's car park and met the group. They had some drinks before going to a night club.

Stead had arranged to stay the night at a friend's house and had no intention of driving home, Mr Mewies said.

Mr Mewies added: "During the course of the evening his friend reneged on the promise of a bed because of some illness or something. He could not get a taxi because of the time of night."

Stead then asked to sleep on the floor of another friend's house but that did not transpire and at about 5am, when he believed he was no longer in drink, he took the decision to go back to work and collect his car and drive home.

Mr Mewies added that there was no incident and no bad driving on the way towards Cross Hills and the police officer's perceived excessive speed, he suspected was because it was the early hours of the morning and his client's vehicle was the only car on the road.

Mr Mewies added his client had received a glowing testimonial from his employer, was a man of good character with a previously clean driving licence.

Magistrates disqualified Stead for 19 months and offered him the chance to reduce his sentence by 19 weeks if he satisfactorily completes a drink-driving rehabilitation course.

He was also fined £161, ordered to pay a surcharge of £32 and court costs of £85.