  Motorway drink-drive judge banned
Reported by teletext on Thursday, 12 November 2009 (on November 12, 2009)
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A former judge caught on the motorway nearly three times the drink-drive limit has been banned from driving for two years.Bruce Macmillan, at the time a circuit judge sitting at Liverpool Crown Court, was also arrested by police three weeks later, while on bail for the first offence, drunk in charge of his car with a half-empty bottle of gin on the passenger seat, Chorley Magistrates' Court in Lancashire, was told.The 63-year-old, who has now lost his distinguished legal career, admitted one count of driving with excess alcohol on the M6 near Chorley, on August 27 and one count of being drunk in charge in Toxteth, Liverpool, on September 17.He was banned from driving for two years and fined £1,200 by magistrates, who were told he was now on a rehabilitation course for alcoholics after the pressures of his job overcame him.Macmillan was called to the bar 40 years ago and served as a circuit judge with "perfect distinction" for 16 years but resigned from his £128,000-a-year job in September and was now a "broken man" after his life had gone "badly wrong", the court was told.Adrian Hollamby, prosecuting, said at around 3.50pm on August 27 an off-duty policeman spotted Macmillan in his Vauxhall Signum on the M6 driving in an "erratic manner" and alerted traffic police. Macmillan was taken to the police station where he was found to be almost three times the limit, giving a reading of 111 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.He was charged and bailed the same day but three weeks later, on September 17, police were called by his wife who awoke to find him not at home and was so concerned for his welfare that she reported him as a missing person, the court heard. A little before midday, officers found him asleep behind the wheel of his car with the keys in the ignition, in Hill Street, Toxteth, Liverpool.Macmillan was taken to the police station and gave a reading three times the limit, with 253 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, the legal limit being 80 milligrams.Ron Herbert, chairman of the bench said the magistrates were impressed by the self-help Macmillan had now undertaken.They imposed a £700 fine and a two year driving ban for the drink-driving offence and a one year ban for being drunk in charge, to run concurrent, along with a £500 fine for that offence. He was also ordered to pay costs and a victim's surcharge penalty totalling £175.
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