AN IT consultant was more than three times the drink drive limit when he was caught drink driving for the second time in seven years, York Magistrates' Court heard.

John Paul Connor, 51, was banned from driving for three years in 2012 for driving over the alcohol limit.

Prosecuting, Victoria Sims said police saw Connor driving erratically on June 3, 2019.

At one point he had to swerve to avoid hitting a central reservation.

They stopped him at Slingsby Grove, off Tadcaster Road, York.

A breath test gave a reading of 110 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

For Connor, Keith Jones said he didn’t have a drinking problem and hasn’t drunk since he was arrested on June 3.

He believed the high reading was due to the medicine he was taking in connection with a recently diagnosed thyroid problem.

District judge Adrian Lower told Connor: “You chose to drink, knowing you were going to be driving. At that point you took a risk.”

He said of Connor’s drink drive conviction in 2012: “It must have been related to a high level of alcohol because of the length of the ban.”

Connor, of Beech Avenue, Acomb, pleaded guilty to drink driving and was given a 40-month driving ban.

The district judge refused him the chance to reduce the ban by taking a drink driver rehabilitation course, saying he had had that chance in 2012.

Connor was also given a 12-month community order with 180 hours’ unpaid work and 15 days’ rehabilitative activities, and was ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and an £85 statutory surcharge.

Mr Jones said Connor had returned to the UK from the US four years ago to care for his ailing mother.

His marriage had been dissolved in 2018 and he was currently unemployed, but was a volunteer for a charity that helps vulnerable and desperate people.

He was awaiting the results of tests connected to his thyroid problem.