Senior DVLA Hit Mercedes At Four Times The Drink Driving Limit

A man who drank a beer as “Dutch courage” before a snooker tournament was later found to be four times the drink-drive limit after hitting a parked car, a court has heard.

DVLA worker Anthony McGinty had spent the night drinking in pubs in Neath before going to the town’s workingmen’s club to play snooker.

But on the drive home he clipped a parked Mercedes car and police were called.

Swansea Magistrates Court heard a subsequent breath test showed McGinty had 139 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit is 35.

McGinty, aged 54, of Thorburn Close, Neath, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol on October 25 when he appeared before magistrates.

The court heard McGinty has worked for the DVLA for more than 30 years and is a senior member of the agency’s criminal intelligence team.

Paul Warren, for McGinty, said his client was a man of previously clean character.

He said the defendant only lived a five minute walk from the Cross Keys pub where he had left his car on the night in question, and “he cannot explain why he decided to drive home”.

The court heard details of a report into McGinty from probation officer Jo Steadman in which the defendant was described as “social drinker” - however on the night in question he had been out with friends in Neath, and had then been invited to play in a snooker tournament in Neath Workingmen’s Club.

Feeling nervous about the match he drank a beer for “Dutch courage” - and “one beer became more”.

The probation officer said McGinty was going through a “very difficult time” following family bereavements, and had described the events of October 25 as “the stupidest and most regretful incident” of his life.

Magistrates told him that given such high breathalyser reading, only a custodial sentence was appropriate in the case.

McGinty was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison suspended for 12 months, and was ordered to complete a nine month alcohol treatment programme.

He was also disqualified from driving for 33 months.

So what are the top selling number plates in the UK? The DVLA has been selling private plates to UK motorists since 1989. During this time, there have been a number of records set, but most of the top 10 have been bought in the past 15 years. Here’s what currently makes the list:

25 0 – A Ferrari dealer bought this for £518k in 2014. It is now on a £10 million Ferrari 250 SWB.
F 1 – A businessman, Afzal Khan, bought this for £440k in 2008 and put it on his McLaren-Mercedes SLR.
S 1 – This was bought in 2008 for £404k by an anonymous buyer.
1 D – Businessman Nabil Bishara bought this plate in 2009 (before One Direction was formed, so it is not a reference to the band) for £352k.
M 1 – Businessman Mike McCoomb bought this number plate in 2006 for £331k, apparently for his son, who was 10 at the time.
VIP 1 – Chelsea owner and businessman Roman Abramovich bought this plate for £285k in 2006.
51 NGH – This number plate, which looks like the surname Singh, was sold in 2006 for £254k.
1 RH – Businessman Robert Haverson bought this in 2006 for £247k.
K1 NGS – This reg plate, which looks like the word “kings”, was bought anonymously in 1993 for £231k.
1 0 – This very simple but striking number plate was bought anonymously in 2009 for £170k.

These are large amounts of money, but they are all small compared to the top-selling number plates found in other parts of the world. Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, has the record for the most expensive number plate ever sold. That number plate was a simple “1”. It was bought in 2008 by businessman Saeed Abdul Ghaffar Khouri for £7.25 million.

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