A FOOTBALL fan has been banned from the roads after "a few too many" while watching the Euros final.
Bryan Pilliner entered a guilty plea when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.
Police had spotted Pilliner driving his Jaguar through a red light in Hereford's Victoria Street in the early hours of July 12, prosecutor Elizabeth Blacklock said.
Officers tried to get his attention and pull him over, following him and turning on their blue lights.
But Pilliner carried on driving even when police turned on their sirens, before finally coming to a stop on the Roman Road.
When officers spoke to Pilliner, he said he thought they had turned on their lights because they wanted to get past him, and was arrested after failing a roadside breath test.
An evidential test in custody revealed he had 77 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.
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Marilena Di Vitantonio, for Pilliner, said the 64-year-old had immediately told the police he had not realised they were trying to pull him over as he did not feel there was an issue with his driving.
"There was no attempt to evade them and he stopped in a safe place and complied with police," she said.
"That evening was the Euros final and he remembers the 1966 final, so he went to watch the football and had a few too many, in his own words. He said it was a stupid thing to do."
The court heard a mandatory driving ban would be "catastrophic" for Pilliner, who lives in a home provided by his employer of 20 years.
"His employer has told him he may no longer be able to insure him to work on the farm, which means he and his wife will have to leave their home of two decades," Miss DiVitantonio said.
Pilliner, of Lower Hope, Ullingswick, was disqualified from driving for 17 months and fined £500. He must also pay costs of £135 and a £50 victim surcharge.
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