Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

A Mansfield estate agent who downed white wine before driving was more than four times the drink-drive limit when police stopped him with cocaine, a court heard.

Mansfield Magistrates’ Court heard Luke Starnes was pulled over in the car park of the Tap Haus, on Leeming Lane North, Mansfield Woodhouse, on the night of July 10.

Siân Young, prosecuting, said a breath test revealed he had 156 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35mcg, and officers found a small amount of cocaine when he was searched at the police station.

Starnes, aged 27, of Leadale Crescent, Mansfield, admitted drink-driving and possession of cocaine.

Pari Seeley, mitigating, said he will no longer be able to work in the same role, but may be kept on in a junior position after working in the industry for more than five years.

She said he has no previous convictions and is 'utterly disappointed and shocked by his behaviour on that evening’.

The court heard that, ‘due to the stresses of work, he occasionally uses cocaine to lift his mood’, but does not intend to use it again.

Mansfield grandmother who glassed man in pub avoided prison by 'hair’s breadth'

A probation officer said: “He was ordering one glass at a time, but has limited recollection of what happened.

“He can’t remember getting in the car.”

Sentencing, magistrates told Starnes: “Your alcohol reading was off the scale.”

Starnes was handed a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work, fined £200 and ordered to pay a £114 surcharge and £85 costs.

He was banned from driving for three years.

Mansfield estate agent four times drink-drive limit when stopped with cocaine