DRINK driver Neil Hunt tried to overturn his conviction and three-year ban by claiming police had ignored his needle phobia.

The 48-year-old said that despite providing a positive sample of breath, he was denied the opportunity of a laboratory sample as he was told it meant giving blood.

But Judge Tom Long-botham, sitting with two magistrates at Swindon Crown Court, found against him and rejected his appeal against a conviction for drink driving.

Hunt said he was driving home from the Milton Road Club where he was acting secretary early on June 24 last year when he was stopped.

After failing a roadside breath test, he was taken from Faringdon Road to Westlea police station where he was formerly breathalysed.

PC Stephen Harding, the arresting officer, told the court that he provided two samples, which had 42mg and 45mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

But he said that as the readings were under 50mg Hunt was offered the opportunity of providing a sample for laboratory testing instead of the breath test result.

The officer told the court that he read out a standard form telling Hunt that a sample of blood or urine would be taken by a doctor.

Although it was up to the police to decide which to ask for, he told the defendant that if there was a medical reason for it being either blood or urine then the doctor would decide.

Under cross-examination, Hunt, representing himself, put it to the officer that he told him a needle phobia would not be an acceptable excuse at the police station, something PC Harding could not recall.

Giving evidence under oath from the witness box, Hunt said that he had been frightened of needles since childhood.

Hunt, of The Mountings, Wroughton, had denied a charge of driving with excess alcohol.

The court heard that Hunt was also banned from the road for drink driving in 1995, meaning the minimum disqualification is three years.

He was fined £110 with £364 costs from the initial hearing and a further £276 towards the costs of the appeal.

Jamie Hill