After he fell foul of Britain’s drinking and driving laws, an American’s North Yorkshire summer would have to end early, a court was told last Thursday.
Harrogate magistrates heard how Colin Timothy Breeding, 21, was in the country visiting his parents.
His father worked at the US base at Menwith Hill, near Harrogate.
When a police patrol stopped his car he had been just over twice the limit, the court heard.
On May 30, he was driving the vehicle out of Harrogate in the direction of Ripon on the A61 at 5.30pm.
Breeding, 21, entered a guilty plea to the charge of drink-driving.
When he entered the plea, prosecutor Steven Ovenden said officers had decided to pull him over after seeing the car brake harshly.
Breeding, who had attended school in North Yorkshire was in the country to spend the summer with his parents at their home in Marsland Barn, Sharow, near Ripon, Andrew Tinning said In mitigation.
He was a full time student in the United States, due to begin his second year at college in September.
But his plans to earn money by obtaining temporary work at Menwith Hill would be hit by a driving ban and he was likely to return home shortly.
Breeding had driven to Harrogate where he had ‘‘a number of beers with friends’’ and went to the cinema.
He had been driving back to Sharow when he was stopped.
In America the drink-drive laws were based more on evidence of impairment rather than purely on a breath-test reading as in England, said Mr Tinning.
And Breeding had believed he was fit to drive.
But he accepted he made a mistake, one which led to him being extremely emotional and upset when taken to the police station, so much so that his father had been allowed into the custody suite to calm him down.
A fine of £100 together with £85 costs, a £15 victim surcharge and a 17-month driving ban was ordered by the court.