A RETIRED police officer who was banned for drink driving has lost a bid to get his licence back.

John Yates, 58, a former training officer at Lancashire police training school and with qualifications in advanced, motorcycle and HGV driving, had argued there were special reasons not to ban him as his drink had been laced.

His son, Kieron, of Oswaldtwistle, fought back tears as he told how he had thought his dad, who had been 'full of flu,' was drinking shandy and how he had tipped a double whisky into his father's drink, without his knowledge, while he had gone to the toilet.

He said: "I thought I was doing him a favour. The previous year I had lost my mother to pneumonia and I didn't want the same thing to happen."

Yates, of Skipton Road, Foulridge, lost his appeal against the sentence of Pennine magistrates when he appeared before Burnley Crown Court. Judge David Pirie said the bench was not satisfied the appellant had established his drink was laced or that what his son said happened did take place.

He added the court did not find special reasons and went on: "We simply do not accept that his son would have behaved in this way."

Yates had been disqualified for 12 months, fined £300 and told to pay £60 costs.

Kendal Lindley, prosecuting, said Yates stopped his BMW at 11.15pm and police spoke to him. He gave a positive roadside breath test and at the police station a blood test showed 95 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood - the legal limit is 80. Mark Stuart, for Yates, said the appellant had drunk three pints of lager and, but for the double whisky, believed he would have been under the limit and would have expected a blood alcohol level of about 67 microgrammes.

Yates told the hearing he had been driving for about 40 years and had one minor traffic conviction for failing to stop at a red traffic light. He had picked up a friend, gone to collect his son in Oswaldtwistle and they had then gone on to the Coach and Horses, in Haslingden Road.

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