An “exemplary” soldier will be demoted and face further military discipline after he was caught drink driving for the second time, York magistrates heard.

Hayden John McIntee, 21, gave a reading of 62 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath when he was stopped on Fishergate, York, on January 21, with passengers in his car. The legal limit is 35.

Magistrates said his driving was not up to standard and he had a previous drink driving conviction within the last ten years.

For him, Rachel Fletcher said he was a serving member of the Royal Artillery and handed in a reference from his senior officer stating he was an “exemplary” soldier who had won awards and topped a leadership course in the Army.

But he would lose the promotion he had been given in November and with it £5,000 in pay because of his latest drink driving conviction. He would also have to appear before his commanding officer and was likely to receive at least a fine.

McIntee, of Cliffe, was banned from driving for 40 months, fined £370 and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £37 statutory surcharge. He pleaded guilty to drink driving.

Senior magistrate Richard Goodacre, sitting with a colleague, said that although he was doing well in the Army, McIntee had failed to learn the lesson of his first drink driving conviction.

Ms Fletcher said McIntee had travelled to York to go out drinking with friends. He had stopped early because he knew he would be driving down to Portsmouth, where he was based, the following day.

He was currently on 12-hour notice to move and was expecting to be deployed to Germany. Because of that it would be difficult for him to do a sentence with unpaid works or a curfew.

Magistrates said they took his Army service and the Army’s response to his conviction into account when passing sentence.