THE owner of Britain’s last Temperance Bar has been banned from driving for 17 months after he admitted drink driving.

Christopher James Law, 52, who owns Fitzpatrick's bar in Rawtenstall, pleaded guilty to the charge at Burnley Magistrates’ Court.

Police in Burnley found Mr Law to be almost twice the legal limit when they stopped him at around 2.30am in Centenary Way on November 7.

Officers found 67 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Mr Law, of Gordon Street, in Rawtenstall, who had no previous endorsements on his licence, was fined £110 and also ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a £20 victim surcharge.

He bought Fitzpatrick’s bar in Bank Street, which has been selling remedies and non-alcoholic drinks such as sarsaparilla and dandelion and burdock since 1890, 12 years ago after a 20-year career as a pipe fitter.

It attracts tourists from across the world and sells products at markets and other outlets across the area. The Temperance movement was formed by tee-total Methodists in Lancashire and thrived throughout the 19th Century with the aim of decreasing the nation’s alcohol intake.

It declined following the import of a wave of imported, sugary drinks from the United States and the Rawtenstall bar, which opened in 1890, was the only one of Fitzpatrick’s 30 bars to survive.