Driving ban for lightweight man: Engineer’s licence confiscated because he was one milligram over the limit

An unlucky student from Nottingham has lost his driving licence for 12 months after drinking just over half a pint.

Derby engineer Jordan Richmond lost control of his Seat Ibiza last December and crashed it in icy conditions.

Jordan, 23, left the vehicle and called emergency services before being taken to hospital, where a blood sample discovered his alcohol content to be above the legal limit — by one milligram.

The court where Jordan was sentenced

The electrical engineer had 81mg per 100 millilitres of blood but the limit is 80mg.

He drank two-thirds of his pint before getting behind the wheel.

A recreation of the amount Jordan drunk on the left

There is no definitive way to know whether what you’ve had to drink will be over the limit, which is why the government advises alcohol should be avoided completely before driving.

Defence lawyer Chris Saunders told the court Jordan needed his car to get to uni in Derby and to his job as a multi-skilled engineer at Boots.

He said: “I hate cases like this because you have one penalty that you have to impose, when that occurs some may say it leads to undue penalties for someone like Jordan Richmond.

“You know that he has been fully co-operative and called the police in the first place.

“Please offer him a driver rehabilitation course because clearly the sooner he gets his licence back the better it will be for all of us.”

Magistrate Christopher Charter added: “It is a hard lesson, when you drive you shouldn’t drink.

“Here you were over the limit, you were just over the limit, but still over the limit.

“It’s a hard lesson for a young gentleman doing well — don’t drink and drive at all.”