Worksop drink-driver faced jail after boozing for the first time in eight years

Staff at Sainsbury’s rang the police after seeing an intoxicated Paul Battersby fall over in the car park and struggle to get up again, at 11pm on October 24 last year.

He was earlier seen clinging to a lamppost and stumbling in the store, said prosecutor Nicole Baugham.

A breath test revealed he had 128 micrograms of alcohol when the legal limit is 35 micrograms. The court heard he has three previous convictions for drink driving, from 2012 and 2015.

Nikki Carlisle, mitigating, said 'his story is a particularly sad one' as Battersby had an 'incredibly rewarding career' as a music teacher and played in brass bands.

But he began drinking heavily after his marriage broke down in 2012, and he was made redundant.

He now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression and has struggled to find work, she said. He abstained from alcohol for eight years but describes himself as 'terrified' after he was hospitalised in an assault that left him with 13 broken ribs and a ruptured spleen.

Battersby said he began drinking again after being told his children don't want any contact with him.

Ms Carlisle said he had been taking steps to improve his life and hoped to return to supply teaching, but that won't be possible without a vehicle.

"He is very upset with himself," she said. "He was just sorting his life out and now he has shot himself in the foot."

Battersby, aged 59, of Prospect Precinct, Worksop, admitted drink driving when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court on February 7.

Sentencing was adjourned until Thursday, when he was told he was ‘on the cusp of going to prison’.

But magistrates stepped back from custody and imposed a 12-month communtiy order, with 12 rehabilitation days to address his alcohol use.

He was disqualified from driving for 40 months, but a rehabilitation course will reduce the ban by 25 per cent if he successfully completes it by June 30, 2025.

He was fined £50 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £114 surcharge.