A PENSIONER tried to drive a motorhome 238 miles while more than twice the drink drive limit.

Leslie Vail, 70, had been at the North York Moors Railway 60s Weekend in Pickering and was driving to his Essex home when police stopped him at Bramham where the A64 meets the A1(M), York magistrates heard.

Melanie Ibbotson, prosecuting, said when officers gave him a breath test a reading was 88 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Vail, of Coach Mews, Billericay, Essex, pleaded guilty to drink driving.

He was banned from driving for 22 months, fined £156 and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £32 statutory surcharge.

Ms Ibbotson said police were making routine checks when they pulled Vail's motorhome over at 11pm, realised he had been drinking and gave him a breath test.

For Vail, Michelle Flaga said he had been in North Yorkshire to North York Moors Railway 60s Weekend on July 13 and July 14.

He had attended the festival in Pickering with his family and on the Sunday he had also gone into Whitby and stayed at a hotel.

He had decided to travel south on the Monday using the A64 and the A1. After setting off, he had stopped at various places between Pickering and the A1(M).

Friends were travelling with him in a separate vehicle.

He had had some alcohol over the weekend and had thought he was under the drink drive limit and therefore it was safe for him to drive.

"He accepts he hadn't eaten for quite a period of time," she said.

Vail, who is retired, lives at his son's house and looks after his grandchildren.

The shortest road route between Pickering and Billericay is 238 miles, via the A64, the A1 and A1(M), the A14, the M11, the M25 and the A12.