A 75-YEAR-OLD Brookeborough man has been disqualified from driving after he crashed while  two-and-a-half times the legal limit on the main Belfast Road. 

Richard Fee of Derrycullion, Brookeborough pleaded guilty to drink driving at Enniskillen Magistrates Court on Monday after he crashed his car on the A4 on January 25. 

When police arrived at the scene of the single-vehicle collision they found Fee’s car had left the road and came to a stop when it hit a fence.

 The officers noted a smell of alcohol coming from the car, and when Fee, the driver, was arrested and breathalysed he returned an evidential reading of 92 micrograms per 100ml of breath. 

Deputy District Judge Phillip Mateer asked “what was going on”, pointing out Fee was two-and-a-half times the limit after having never been in trouble in his life. 

Defence barrister Ciaran Roddy said Fee, a retired farmer and milkman, couldn’t explain why it had happened. He said Fee had gone out to the shop to buy groceries, and had gone to the pub for a couple of pints, then made the “stupid decision” to drive home. 

Judge Mateer pointed out he must’ve drank more than a couple of pints to be so far over the limit, given his reading, and said it would not have been a matter of debating whether he should or shouldn’t drive. 

Mr Roddy went on to say Fee accepted he may never return to driving as a result of the driving ban for the offence, and said this would cause him some difficulty as his wife is in hospital at the South West Acute Hospital and he lived in a rural areal. 

Judge Mateersaid Fee’s case was unusual as he had never been in court or had a penalty point on his licence, had a sick wife in hospital, yet he “went out and got so intoxicated so you were almost three times the legal limit.” 

Judge Mateer added it was “a serious enough matter” as Fee had been driving and had crashed at around 9pm at night, when other cars were on the road and he may have caused serious injury or even death, “as happens so often in Fermanagh.” 

Fee was fined £400 and disqualified from driving for two years.