Henry Cecil banned for drink-driving

The racehorse trainer Henry Cecil was fined £3,000 yesterday and banned from driving for five years, his second conviction for a drink-driving offence.

The racehorse trainer Henry Cecil was fined £3,000 yesterday and banned from driving for five years, his second conviction for a drink-driving offence.

Magistrates in Ely, Cambridgeshire, were told how Cecil, 57, a millionaire from Newmarket, Suffolk, had hit two elderly people who were walking along a road. Magistrate Sue Thompson told Cecil he had shown a "complete disregard for the safety of other road-users".

Cecil was driving in Ashley, Cambridgeshire, on a Sunday in July, when his car clipped Len Hurrell, 78, and his wife Joan, 77. Mrs Hurrell suffered a broken arm and Mr Hurrell required stitches for his cuts.

Magistrates were told Cecil had been drinking at a lunch with his son Jake, 6, and a male friend and his child.

Cecil, who was also convicted of drink-driving in 1991, told police on his arrest that his friend had been driving. But he admitted his guilt at a police station the following day. Tests showed that his alcohol reading was 88mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

Mrs Thompson told Cecil: "It is a very high reading. We feel you must have been quite clearly intoxicated before you got behind the wheel of that car and by the fact that injuries resulted from what happened." She added: "We feel it showed a complete disregard for the safety of other road users."

Asked later how the ban would affect his lifestyle, Cecil said: "I can't afford a chauffeur."