Drink driving GP Donald Clegg ‘was sleep walking’
A doctor from Greater Manchester has been banned from driving after he admitted to drink driving while he was asleep.
GP Donald Clegg, 59, was involved in a crash in Bury New Road in Prestwich in December. He was found behind the wheel in his dressing gown and slippers.
Bury Magistrates’ Court heard that the sleepwalking meant Clegg, of Prestwich, was not conscious of his actions.
But the bench banned him from driving for 12 months.
He had admitted driving with excess alcohol and without due care and attention but only because of his state of “parasomnia”.
‘Special reasons’
Clegg was almost four times over the limit when he got out of bed and into his car on 8 December.
He drove for a mile while still “asleep” before crashing into parked cars. He was talking incoherently about driving to his mother’s house when bystanders snapped the car key in the ignition to stop him driving away again, the court heard.
The GP claimed the first he knew of the incident was when he woke up in a police cell.
The prosecution did not dispute Clegg was sleepwalking.
Clegg’s lawyer asked the court to use “special reasons” to suspend any driving ban – normally automatic for drink-driving.
A breath test showed he had 127 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
Such a reading normally attracts a driving ban for about three years and possibly a short jail term.
But magistrates banned him for a year, fined him £650 and ordered he should pay £300 in costs and the £15 victim surcharge.