A DRIVER caught behind the wheel more than three times over the limit after being spotted leaving a pub has been banned from driving for 28 months.

Edward Cosgrove, aged 54, of Manchester Road, Woolston, had been boozing in the Original Wire pub on Orford Lane.

A police patrol saw him leave and get into a car.

When officers pulled over the defendant’s Ford Mondeo at 7pm on March 22, a breath test revealed 116 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath.

The legal limit is 35.

Cosgrove pleaded guilty to driving with an alcohol level above the legal limit at Halton Magistrates Court on Thursday.

It heard the defendant had met up with work colleagues, and redundancies were being discussed at the company he had been employed at for 38 years.

District Judge Bridget Knight told Cosgrove to pay £855 in fines and costs, in addition to the driving ban.

The defendant said ‘I’m sorry about everything’, as he left court.