A 75-YEAR-OLD Jaguar driver drank brandy in his car as he drove from London to Newcastle.

Andrew Coates was also uninsured for the 290-mile drive, York magistrates heard.

He was twice the legal alcohol limit when police arrested him near York.

For Coates, Ben Langley said he had taken the brandy to help him take painkillers for his knee and the lack of insurance had been an oversight.

Coates, of Belgrave Road, Redbridge near Stratford, London, pleaded guilty to drink driving and driving without insurance.

He was banned from driving for 22 months and ordered to pay a total of £592, including a £461 fine, a £46 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

Aamir Sajad, prosecuting, said a member of the public contacted police about Coates because he was driving erratically on the A19 Fulford Road on November 14.

Coates pulled into a layby before police arrived. He was heavily intoxicated and unsteady on his feet.

A breath test at Fulford Road Police Station, in York, gave a reading of 77 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

In an interview, Coates told police “he had been drinking whilst driving,” said Mr Sajad.

Coates had no previous convictions.

Mr Langley said Coates suffered from knee pain. He had had one knee replaced and was waiting for the second to be replaced.

While on the M11, he had pulled over to take a painkiller and drank some brandy to help the pill go down.

In total he had drunk about half of the bottle.

He had been on his way to Newcastle for an interview in connection with a four-house building project he was involved in which would run out of funds unless one of the houses was sold.

He had also been preoccupied at the time with his divorce from his second wife.

The Jaguar was driven by several people and he had believed his name had been added to the approved drivers’ list, but it hadn’t.

He had now made sure that it was.