A SENIOR aircraftsman found to be over twice the limit has kept his driving licence - and the prospects of a rising career in the Royal Air Force - after a court heard his drink was spiked.
Burnley Magistrates had been told how Neil Dransfield, 20, had 83 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 mililitres of breath - the legal limit is 35- when tested by police in the early hours, but claimed he had earlier had two pints of lager and then gone onto coca colas.
A forensic scientist's report read to the court said if that was the case he would have given a breath test reading of 16.
Dransfield, described by his Flight Commander at RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, as highly thought-of and industrious, admitted driving with excess alcohol last November.
The defendant, of Pickard Close, Barnoldswick, was fined £150, with costs of £55 and his licence was endorsed with six points. The bench said they accepted Dransfield's evidence and that of the forensic scientist and found special reasons.
Dransfield was employed as a driver and a fork lift driver.
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