Jaguar driver loses licence after drink driving conviction

Timothy Hatch, 63, of Salem Street, Jarrow, appeared before South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court to plead guilty to a charge of driving with excess alcohol and one of driving without a licence.

Glenda Beck, prosecuting, said Hatch was stopped by police at around 2.30am on September 22 driving his Jaguar car on John Reid Road.

She said: “They became aware of a Jaguar moving from side to side and breaking unnecessarily. There was nobody else on the road.”

The officers stopped Hatch and asked him twice to get out of the car.

She said: “The defendant did get out of the car and appeared to be drunk.”

He was found to have 65 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, with the limit being 35.

Joanne Gatens, defending, said her client suffers from some serious medical conditions.

She said: “He says that he will never drive again in the future.”

Ms Gatens added: “He has significant mobility problems and finds it difficult to get around.

“He acknowledges that he shouldn’t have been driving.”

She said his car was the only way for him to get around and he will now have to rely on taxis and the patient ambulance for hospital visits.

Hatch was disqualified from driving for 18 months. He was also fined £210 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £32 victim surcharge.