A FORMER firefighter will not drive again until he can prove he doesn't have an alcohol problem after he was caught drink driving for the second time in four years, York Magistrates Court heard.

Jaguar driver Graeme Melvyn Willis, 54, was nearly three times the drink drive limit at 5.05pm on March 30 when police found him in his car on the grass verge of the A19 near Easingwold, said Julian Tanikal, prosecuting.

In 2014 he was banned from driving for 18 months for another offence of drink driving.

Willis, of Whiteoak Avenue, Easingwold, pleaded guilty to drink driving and was banned for four years.

District judge Adrian Lower warned him he would have to convince the DVLA he didn’t have a drink problem before he would be allowed to have a licence again.

“As a former fireman you will have had the experience of having to cut people out of motor vehicles after drinking and driving had played its part in the collision that had taken place,” the district judge told Willis.

“You decided to get back behind the wheel of the vehicle when you must have known you had had far too much to drink.”

He fined him £430 with a £43 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

Barrister Aelred Hookway told the court Willis was having great difficulty coping with the implications of a life-limiting illness which he suffers from.

“He had no intention of going for a drink, but he ended up in a pub. He was going to his place of work, a two-mile drive,” said Mr Hookway.

He had been trying to keep his medical issues from his family and his wife was “almost relieved” when his arrest brought matters to a head because of the way he had been distancing himself from her.

Willis had been a fireman for many years during which he had twice won commendations.

He had learnt from the first time he had been caught drink-driving and had gone on a drink-drivers rehabilitation course.

The judge did not offer him the chance to reduce his four-year driving ban by retaking the course, saying he had had his chance.