Driver sentenced after being spotted swigging from bottle of wine on M1 near Northampton

A member of the public saw Pomah Kaitanskyy drinking from a bottle as his car struggled to stay in one lane of the M1 in September, Northampton Magistrates' Court heard.

The 33-year-old, of Griffiths Drive, Wolverhampton, pleaded guilty to drink-driving on Thursday (October 3).

The lead magistrate said: "There was a danger this could have been something much worse like the death of a third party.

"You were three times over the legal limit so the court is very, very concerned about your behaviour."

On September 15, Kaitanskyy told the court he had just spent time with his son after splitting with his wife earlier this year and was very stressed, which is why he drank the wine.

The other driver saw Kaitanskyy with the bottle of wine as he went to overtake his black Mazda on the M1 - they went back behind him to stay out of its way, the court heard.

They watched as the Mazda went between the lanes and 'had difficulty' keeping to one lane before calling the police.

Kaitanskyy was eventually pulled over by police on the A4500 after coming off at junction 16 - he told them he was planning on sleeping in his car.

A breathalyser test at the scene gave a reading of 157 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the limit is 22 microgrammes and a secondary test at the police station read as 109 microgrammes.

Kaitanskyy's defence lawyer told the court: "He did what a lot of men do when we can't deal with the pain, we turn to drink. He tried to numb the pain of his divorce."

But considering he had a previous conviction for drink-driving in 2015, the magistrate sentenced him to a 12-month community order, 150 hours of unpaid work, a driving ban of three years and told to pay £175.