Blackpool driver's refusal to give test to police

Leigh Mulholland, 36, of Westmorland Avenue, Blackpool, pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen for alcohol testing.

Prosecutor, Pam Smith, said police were called to an address on Westmorland Avenue and told the defendant, who was drunk, had got into his BMW and driven off on December 26.

When Mulholland was stopped and asked to take a breath test he made an obscene remark to a police officer.

At the police station he was asked twice to take a breathalyser test but told officers: “No - you’re not getting my breath.”

The offence had put Mulholland in breach of a suspended prison sentence.

Suzanne Mugford, defending, told magistrates her client said he refused to provide a breath specimen because he had been assaulted and he was in shock.

Mulholland was bailed for sentence at Preston Crown Court on February 21 by Blackpool magistrates and banned from driving in the meantime.