Husband and wife banned after being caught drink-driving on the same day

A husband and wife were both arrested for drink driving after he went to her aid when she had a car crash, magistrates heard. Charles Fitch, 75, was so worried when he was told his wife had been involved in an accident that he set off from home to look for her, the court was told. But when he arrived at the scene, police suspected he had been drinking and breath-tested him at the roadside.

Fitch did not know his wife, Kathryn Mason, had also been breathalysed and both were charged over the offences committed on Saturday, December 14, during police’s annual Christmas crackdown on drink driving. The couple from Poulner in Ringwood, Hampshire had their cases heard in neighbouring courts at Bournemouth Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.



Magistrates in court 4 heard Fitch was nearly twice the alcohol limit for driving. He had 62 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath when the legal limit is 35. He admitted having “a couple of whiskies” and was banned from driving for 12 months, fined £400 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £40 victim surcharge.

Meanwhile in court 3, 59-year-old Mason admitted to driving with 74 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath – more than twice the legal limit – and was banned for 17 months, fined £350 and told to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £35. The court was told Mason’s black Peugeot 207 was involved in a collision in West Moors, Dorset, just after 9pm as she was returning home from a club. Fitch went to look for her “slowly and carefully” in his Vauxhall Astra and was arrested after speaking to police officers near the scene of the crash.