Full Monty star drink-drive ban
FULL Monty actor Hugo Speer was banned from driving yesterday after he drove home from a friend’s funeral two times over the legal drink-drive limit.
The 41-year-old – star of the hit 1997 comedy – smashed his BMW into a traffic-calming island.
Speer had downed glasses of wine and crashed in a country lane, a court was told. A woman driver passed his car with its hazard lights flashing on June 10. She was concerned the actor was ill after finding him slumped behind the wheel.
Prosecutor Zoe Simpson told Harrogate Magistrates’ Court, in North Yorks: “He appeared to be sleeping and she knocked on the window but failed to wake him.”
The woman called emergency services who raced to the crash scene.
Speer was given a breath test and found to have 70 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.
Magistrates were told that Speer had his glass of wine continually topped up at the wake, a mile from his home near Harrogate. He was banned from driving for 18 months and fined £350 with £60 costs.
Speer pleaded guilty to drink- driving.
The court was told the front wing of the BMW was damaged and a traffic island sign 200 metres away was also broken after being hit by the car.
Speer, who has four previous convictions for speeding, told police he ran into a road sign.