SELF-employed gardener Peter David Wooldridge, 52, has been banned from driving for 16 months after he was caught drink-driving.
Wooldridge told Flintshire Magistrates Court at Mold yesterday he had been on a drink awareness course 10 years ago and always stuck religiously to what he had been told on that course.
He said he honestly believed he would have been under the limit.
But Wooldridge,of Fairway, Sandycroft, admitted he drove with 118 milligrammes of alcohol in his blood compared to the legal limit of 80.
In addition to the driving ban, he was fined £130 with £105 costs.
District Judge Nick Saunders also offered him a place on another drink driver’s rehabilitation course.
“Everybody’s body is different. The only safe way is not to drink,” he said.
Tracey Willingham, prosecuting, said shortly before 10pm on January 15 police in a marked vehicle saw a Nissan Micra pulling out of the car park of The Plough pubic house at Aston.
An officer followed and monitored the driving of the car and when it pulled up in a lay-by in Central Drive, he provided a positive breathtest.
At the police station he provided a reading of 47 microgrammes, compared to the legal limit of 35, and opted for a blood sample.
Woolridge had a previous conviction for drink driving but that was outside the 10 year period when he would have been subject to a statutory three year driving ban.
Chris Jesse, defending, said Woolridge, a self-employed gardener, had been to a pub quiz with his wife.
He had three pints of bitter in a three-and-a-half hour period and thought he would be safe to drive.