Ban for drink driver who drove to Covid test site

67-year-old asked for vaccination

A court’s heard a man disrupted the Island’s Coronavirus test site after drink-driving to it and asking to be vaccinated.

Sixty-seven-year-old John Stephen Hammill, of no fixed abode, appeared before Deputy High Bailiff Christopher Arrowsmith via a video link from Police Headquarters.

He admitted drink-driving and prosecutor Rebecca Cubbon withdrew charges of driving whilst unfit and riding a motorbike without a crash helmet.

The court heard the part-time taxi driver had argued with his wife and was living in his Fiat Ducato.

At around 2.15pm, on 23 March, he arrived at the TT Grandstand in the van and asked for a Covid-19 vaccination but staff explained they only carried out tests.

After smelling alcohol on his breath they rang police who arrested Hammill in the Noble’s Park camping area nearby.

He denied he’d been drinking but a test at Police Headquarters showed he was more than one and a half times the limit.

Mr Arrowsmith said the incident had caused disruption and concern at the site.

He banned Hammill from the roads for a year as well as ordering him to pay an £800 fine and £125 in prosecution costs.