A 24-year-old farmer has admitted being drunk in charge of a tractor outside a pub two days before Christmas.

Stephen Flanagan, who was over three times the legal alcohol limit, intended to drive the tractor home but could not get it to start.

He was fined £250 and banned from driving for 12 months.

A prosecutor told Fermanagh Court that at 12.10am on Tuesday, December 23, last year, police saw the tractor parked outside the Oasis Bar at Main Street, Magheraveely. The vehicle’s lights were on and Flanagan and another man in his twenties were shining the light from an iPhone into the engine. As soon as they saw the police they began to walk away from the tractor.

The officers approached them and told them their behaviour was suspicious.

The police noticed a strong smell of intoxicating liquor from Flanagan. He told them he owned the tractor and was going to drive it home. He failed a preliminary breath test.

He was taken to Enniskillen Police Station where an evidential sample produced an alcohol reading of 110 - over three times the legal limit of 35.

Defence solicitor Brian Charity said Flanagan had been checking cattle when he met up with a friend and they went to the pub and “had a few drinks”.

“On leaving the premises the tractor simply wouldn’t start,” explained Mr. Charity. “The key was in the ignition but it wouldn’t start.” He explained that Flanagan, whose address was given as Dagdale Drive, Oxford, had flown back from England for the court case.

He said Flanagan has a full time job and good prospects and handed in a reference from his employer in England who “speaks quite highly of him”.

District Judge Nigel Broderick said he was obviously concerned that Flanagan was about to drive the tractor and the high reading.

He said that, given the high reading, he was minded to impose a driving ban.