When a 47-year-old driver arrived home in an intoxicated state his wife phoned the police and his five-year-old son said his father had been drinking brandy.

Baskin Edward Hassard, of Clabby Road, Fivemiletown, pleaded guilty at Fermanagh Court to driving with excess alcohol.

He was fined £300 and banned from driving for 14 months.

A prosecutor told the court that at approximately 9.30pm on Sunday, April 27, police were called to Hassard’s house. His wife told them her husband had gone to Monaghan with their five-year-old son in a Morris Minor car and arrived home half-an-hour earlier in an intoxicated state. Their five-year-old son said that while they were in Monaghan his father had been drinking brandy. They then went to Fivemiletown Golf Club before returning home.

The prosecutor said the police found Hassard in bed. There was a strong smell of alcohol in the room. He told them: “I was drinking in Monaghan all right. I was at a friend’s.” The court heard that Hassard failed a preliminary breath test. An evidential sample produced a reading of 63 - 28 in excess of the legal limit of 35. He told police: “Look I’m guilty as charged.” Defence barrister Mark Lennon said there was a domestic background, adding that: “It was a disgraceful episode.” He said Hassard accepted his five-year-old son was in the car with him.

“Disgraceful. No other word for it,” the barrister added.

He said Hassard operated a car recovery business and “is going to have to be looking for another driver” now that he is disqualified.

District Judge Nigel Broderick told Hassard driving with excess alcohol is a serious offence, aggravated in this case by the fact there was a young child in the vehicle.