An estate agent in his company car was almost three times over the drink-drive limit, and has been forced to resign.

Lee Whitehead, a director of Ryder and Dutton which has 20 offices in Lancashire, West Yorkshire and the Rossendale Valley, was banned from driving for four years.

He pleaded guilty at Kirklees Magistrates Court to driving over the limit.

He was spotted driving erratically by a passenger in a taxi, and police were called.

Magistrates heard that Whitehead, 37, had a previous drink driving conviction which resulted in him being banned for 16 months.

The court was told that Whitehead had worked for Ryder and Dutton since leaving school, when he had joined as office junior.

Mitigating, Rachel Sharpe told the bench that Whitehead, who had problems in his private life, had to resign “as clearly as an estate agent he has to drive and won’t be able to do that when disqualified”.

However, she said he had been offered an office job with the company.

As well as the four-year driving ban, magistrates ordered Whitehead to complete a community order with six months of alcohol treatment.

 http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/drink-driving-estate-agent-lee-13174921