A MOTORIST who refused to give a breath test by claiming that police were using a faulty machine has been received a driving ban.

A roadside breath test indicated that Daniel Patrick Mulhearn, 22, was two and half times the drink drive limit when he crashed a car through a garden hedge on Walker Drive, Foxwood, just after midnight on April 26, said Martin Butterworth, prosecuting.

York Press:

But when police tried to get him to breathe into a breathalyser at Fulford Road Police Station to provide evidence that could be used in court, he refused. He claimed the machine was malfunctioning. However, it had been working correctly when police had calibrated and checked it earlier that day.

Mulhearn, of Hob Stone Court, off Windsor Garth, Acomb, pleaded guilty to failure to provide a breath sample - an offence under drink-driving laws which carries a compulsory driving ban of at least 12 months.

He was banned from driving for 18 months and ordered to do 40 hours’ unpaid work and pay £85 prosecution costs and an £85 statutory surcharge.

He told magistrates the o-ring on the breathalyser mouthpiece had a crack and through his work, he knew how important o-rings were. He claimed he had offered to provide a blood sample instead, but police had insisted on the breath sample.

He said he had drunk a couple of pints and hadn’t believed he was over the limit. He was taking a friend home and missed a turning. He corrected himself too sharply, the car hit a kerb, its air bags had expanded and smashed the windscreen. He had then gone into the hedge.

Mr Butterworth said police heard Mulhearn at the scene of the crash tell a friend over the phone: “I’ve been stupid, I’ve written it off.”