Chester hotel resident heading for sex date denied drink driving

A Chester hotel resident told police he had been given a lift when he travelled to North Wales to have sex with two girls.

Michael Craig Wood, 41, was in the back seat, pretending to be chauffeured, but the vehicle ran out of fuel, he claimed.

The car was parked in a field gateway at Gwernymynydd, near Mold, and his friend who had been driving rang his father who arrived in an Audi and took him to get some fuel.

Wood said he himself remained with his car and sat in the driver’s seat listening to music.

Alerted by woman driver

Police officers had been alerted by a woman driver who was concerned when the car had overtaken her at Alltami and she later saw it parked up at Gwernymynydd.

The police arrived just as Craig said his friend was putting fuel in the car but he left with his father.

Officers agreed there was a second man at the scene when they arrived – but said only one person left in the Audi.

Wood, of the Mollington Banastre Hotel in Parkgate Road, Mollington, Chester, denied he had driven his Ford Fiesta that day.

Banned from driving

But he was convicted of driving with 54 microgrammes of alcohol in his breath compared to the legal limit of 35, and he was banned from driving for three years because he had a previous conviction for drink driving nearly ten years ago.

He was fined £900 with £620 costs and a £90 surcharge – but said he would almost certainly lose his employment as a result of the driving ban.

Prosecutor Helen Hall told how police from Ruthin arrived at Gwernymynydd on the night of March 21.

Music was blaring, Craig was in the driving seat, there was a smell of petrol and a second man left in an Audi.

Arrested

Wood provided a positive breath test and was arrested.

Interviewed, he said he had been driven by a third party he refused to name and was on his way to Ruthin for sex with two girls but the vehicle ran out of fuel.

In evidence, Wood named his friend, said he had loaned the vehicle to him, the arrangements changed and his friend agreed to drive him to North Wales to see a woman friend.

He pretended to be chauffeured, he said, as something of a joke, and sat in the back.

Slumped in back seat

Asked why the woman motorist had only seen one occupant of the car, he said he may have been slumped in the back seat and in any event the vehicle had tinted windows.

When the car ran out of fuel he stayed in the car and sat in the driving seat listening to music but he had not driven it, he said.

His friend tried to put fuel in the car but was not successful and his friend left with his father in the Audi when officers arrived, he said.

It had been a left hand drive vehicle, he said.

He had tried to contact his friend and work colleague to give evidence but he did not want to know.

Fictitious friend

Cross-examined, he denied he had been driving and had simply made up the story about a fictitious friend.

Dennis Dudley, defending, said Craig had been wrong not to name his friend to the police and it was conceded he should have made more effort to bring him to court.

Police confirmed there was another man at the scene, there was a small of petrol and they would have been concentrating on Craig, not if there was anyone else in the Audi which drove off.

Magistrates said that they found the prosecution evidence credible; they believed that only one person left in the Audi, and they said they found the defendant’s version of events “unconvincing and totally implausible”.