A driver that tested at two and a half times the limit for alcohol in blood after a road accident outside a pub claimed it was a total mystery how the alcohol level had been recorded, as he had not been drinking, his solicitor told Truro magistrates.

Stephen Tailor, aged 40, of Tye Lane, Rosudgeon Downs, had not touched alcohol since his last conviction for drink driving seven years ago, and he could not understand why alcohol was found in his body.

Tailor pleaded guilty to drink driving at Rosudgeon on May 14 when he tested at 204 milligrams of alcohol in blood.

Jill Wilson, for the CPS, said the driver of the other car involved in the two-vehicle accident reported he had seen Tailor’s car approaching him, the driver looking in the wrong direction, and without warning it had pulled out in front of him, the driver still looking the wrong way.

The collision left both drivers, a passenger, and a dog in need of medical treatment.

Tailor had previous convictions for drink driving in 1999 and 2007.

His solicitor John Evans said his client was greatly troubled by the incident as to how the alcohol had got in his blood, describing it as a total mystery.

Since his conviction in 2007 he had given up alcohol, and everyone in the Rosudgeon area knew it. Although the accident occurred outside the Coach and Horses pub and he had come from its car park he had been inside to book a table for a meal. The licensee would confirm that he had not had a drink.

He had also talked to the licensee of the other pub in the area who informed him he had not been inside.

“He has also spoken to his circle of friends to ascertain whether any of them could throw any light on how he came to have alcohol in his blood but they told him, ‘Don’t be silly, you don’t drink’,” said Mr Evans.

He accepted the reading and had no choice but to plead guilty. This was not the sort of behaviour that was typical of him because he had remained alcohol free since that last conviction.

Tailor was fined £110 and £105 costs and surcharge and banned from driving for 46 months.