A drink-driver who was nearly four times the limit has been banned from the roads for two-and-a-half years.

York magistrates also gave Nicholas Martin Scherer, 25, a 12-month prison sentence suspended for a year on condition he observes a 12-hour nightly curfew, does 12 months supervision and attends a drink-impaired drivers’ rehabilitation course.

For the next 20 weeks he must be indoors at his home address between 6pm and 6am.

Scherer was stopped in Gale Lane, Acomb, at 7.35pm on Saturday, December 21, during the annual police Christmas crackdown on drink-driving.

He gave a breath test of 130 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Scherer, of Kingsway West, Acomb, pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving without insurance and without a licence.

He was sentenced at the same time for taking a car without the owner’s consent and possessing cocaine, offences he also admitted.