Bassetlaw drink-driver crashed his car while travelling over a level-crossing

Anthony Cobb called the police after the accident on Sutton Lane, near Botany Bay, at 1.50am, on Sunday, April 3.

Prosecutor Teresa Simms said a test revealed he had 47 mcgs of alcohol when the legal limit is 35 mcgs.

Lesley Pidcock, mitigating, said Cobb, who has no previous convictions, had no intention of driving, but received a phone call from a female friend "who was lost and scared in Nottingham."

He doesn't normally drink except at Christmas or New Year's Eve, she said.

Magistrates heard that Cobb, who drives a van to escort people with severe mental health issues, would lose his job as a support worker.

The ban would also make it difficult for him to maintain contact with his two children, who live between his home and his ex-partner's, because he "lives in a relatively rural area of Retford," she said.

"It's a sad state of affairs,” Mrs Pidcock added. “It's a position he puts himself in."

She asked the magistrates to deal with him as leniently as possible.

Cobb, aged 37, of Highfield, Retford, admitted drink driving when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

He was fined £300, with a £34 surcharge of £34 and £85 court costs.

He was banned for 12 months, but he was offered a rehabilitation course which will reduce the disqualification by 91 days if he completes it by November 2022.

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