A HUSBAND and wife from Poulner were both detained for drink driving after he went to her aid in a car crash, Bournemouth magistrates heard.

Charles Fitch, 75, of Nouale Lane, was so worried when he was told his wife had been involved in an accident that he set off from his home to look for her, the court was told.

But when he arrived at the scene on Saturday, December 14, police suspected he had also been drinking and breath-tested him at the roadside.

Fitch did not know his wife Kathryn Mason had also been breathalysed and both were charged with drink-driving Bournemouth magistrates heard Fitch, a former aircraft engineer and company director, had an alcohol level of 62 – the legal limit is 35.

He admitted having “a couple of whiskies” and was banned from driving for 12 months, fined £400 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £40 victim surcharge.

Meanwhile in Court 3, his 59-year old wife admitted to driving with an alcohol level of 74 – more than twice the legal limit – and was banned for 17 months, fined £350 and told to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £35.

The court was told Mason’s black Peugeot 207 was involved in a collision in Pinehurst Road in West Moors just after 9pm as she was returning home from a club.

Fitch went to look for her “slowly and carefully” in his Vauxhall Astra and was arrested after speaking to police officers on the A31, near the scene of the crash.