A MAN has been cleared of attempting to abduct a ten-year-old girl in the Selby area but has been warned he may have a drink problem and could face a court restriction on his movements.

Eyewitnesses told York Crown Court David Steven Wain, 56, appeared to be drunk and had an open bottle of vodka in his car when he was stopped by the girl's neighbours.

They had acted after the girl ran home to her mother and claimed Wain had shouted at her to get into his car while she had been walking her dog.

Wain told police he had just asked for directions because he was lost and believed the girl had misunderstood him and panicked.

He also refused to give police a breath specimen.

After hearing from both Wain and the girl, a jury took just under two hours to acquit him of attempted abduction.

Wain, of Marsh Lane, Bolton Percy, near Selby, denied that charge but admitted failure to provide a breath specimen, his third drink-driving related conviction in three years.

He had failed to provide a specimen when stopped in Norfolk in 2011.

In 2012, he was given a 20-month driving ban after he was caught drink-driving in West Suffolk, but reduced it to 15 months by completing a drink-drive rehabilitation course.

The Recorder of York, Judge Stephen Ashurst, said: "Completion of that course seems to have absolutely no effect on your attitude towards drinking and driving."

Judge Ashurst gave Wain a three-month prison sentence suspended for two years and banned him from driving for three years.

Earlier, the judge had said the drink-driving history “may be a sign of an underlying serious drink problem”.

He added: “In the light of what I have heard in the trial, there may well be some link with the loss of his employment in East Anglia and the break-up of his marriage.”

Following the acquittal, the prosecution asked for a restraining order to be made to keep him away from the girl.

The judge adjourned the application to a special hearing.