A SHIPPING magnate has been banned from driving for three years and fined �1,100 after admitting drink-driving days after his wife and new-born son left him for America.

Laurence Cawley

A SHIPPING magnate has been banned from driving for three years and fined �1,100 after admitting drink-driving days after his wife and new-born son left him for America.

David Johnson, 30, sits alongside his father Derek and brother Michael as one of the directors of the worldwide liner shipping agents Johnson Stevens in Felixstowe.

Appearing before magistrates in Bury St Edmunds yesterday, Johnson, of Regatta Quay, Ipswich, admitted drink-driving following an “altercation” with another driver on the A14 near Newmarket on January 25.

When he was breathalysed by police at the Rowley Mile services he was found to have twice the legal amount of alcohol in his breath. Johnson sobbed throughout the hearing, during which it emerged he had a previous drink-drive conviction dating back to 2007 following the death of his mother.

Rosalind Clark, prosecuting, told how police were notified of an incident on the A14 in which two cars “appeared to be racing”.

She told how Johnson, who was driving a Ford Focus, pulled over and was spoken to by police. “He was open and honest with the police. He said he had been driving the vehicle and he had three pints earlier. He tested positive with 91 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

He said there was “an altercation” and that he thought the other driver was driving “discourteously”.”

Matthew Edwards, for Johnson, who earned �45,000 a year as a director, said: “His wife and child had recently left him and that was the crux of the matter.

“Back in October his wife gave birth to their son. They separated almost immediately after she returned from hospital. On January 13, she then flew out to the US.”

Magistrates banned Johnson from driving for 36 months , fined him �1,100 and ordered him to pay �85 court costs and �15 in victim surcharge.