A 29-year-old with a fledgling business has been banned from driving for 42 months after admitting his second offence within ten years.

Carl Lewis made the mistake of returning to a friend’s house where he had been drinking as he had left some documents behind, Skipton magistrates heard on Friday.

He was stopped in Back Colne Road, Cross Hills, at 1.40am on November 7 after pulling out in front of a police car in his Volkswagen Beetle.

A roadside breath test proved positive and he was taken to Skipton Police Station, where he was found to have 86 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Lewis, who admitted drink-driving, had been banned from getting behind the wheel for three years in October 2004 for an identical offence, the court was told.

He lived with his partner and child and had recently started up a business as a marketing consultant.

On November 7, he had gone to a friend’s house where he had drunk four or five cans of lager before being driven home to Hartley Street in Glusburn. He had then taken the “knee-jerk” decision of driving back to his friend’s house to collect some documents.

Magistrates banned Lewis for 42 months and fined him £225 with £85 costs. He was not offered the chance to take the drink drivers’ rehabilitation course because it was his second offence in ten years.