A SON who was under a driving ban and went drink-driving in his employer’s van has been jailed for 16 weeks.

Artur Mucha was desperate to get credit on his mobile phone so he could ring his father in hospital, York magistrates heard.

So, despite being two-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit, and banned from the roads and his employer’s vehicles because he was convicted of a drink-driving offence last autumn, the 45-year-old swimming pool constructor took his firm’s van and drove into York.

Caroline May, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “One of its fog lights was illuminated and the vehicle was wandering from side in its lane.”

Police followed him from the BP service station in Hull Road over the Grimston Bar roundabout before Mucha stopped on the A166. Two attempts to test his breath failed.

“The defendant’s speech was slurred,” said Mrs May. “His eyes were bloodshot and glazed and he was unsteady on his feet.”

A breath test at Fulford Road Police Station gave a reading of 95 – the legal limit is 35. Police had the van taken to a compound and the employer had to pay £150 to get it back.

Mucha, who lives on a caravan at his employer’s farm in Warthill near Stamford Bridge, pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving while disqualified, taking the van without consent and driving without insurance.

Magistrates locked him up for 16 weeks and banned him from driving for four years.

His solicitor, Sally Howard, said Mucha was a Pole who had worked in Britain for three years raising money for his father, who was seriously ill in hospital following a stroke, and for his wife and children.

He had spent Sunday with friends drinking whisky and vodka and returned to York on May Day Monday.

“He heard his father had taken a turn for the worse. That information was waiting for him on his return.

“He had no credit on his mobile phone and in his concern for his father, he took the decision to borrow his employers’ vehicle.”