A drink-driving trucker’s appeal for a lift back to his vehicle from jail was turned down by magistrates who had just taken his licence away for 16 months.

Josef Caky asked Ipswich magistrates if the court would arrange transport for his return to the Port of Felixstowe, where he had been arrested for driving a lorry while over the legal alcohol limit.

The 59-year-old Hungarian national appeared via video link from Norwich prison last Monday following his arrest on the morning of February 21.

Caky admitted driving a Mercedes Actros heavy goods vehicle with 44 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – exceeding the prescribed limit of 35mcg.

Speaking through an interpreter, Caky told the court he was “terribly sorry” for taking to the road the morning after drinking four beers at a truck stop.

Prosecutor Colette Harper told magistrates how another lorry driver had stopped behind Caky’s vehicle at the Dock Spur Roundabout traffic lights at about 7.15am.

“As the lights turned green, the defendant didn’t accelerate as he should have, and then swerved across the nearside lane, clipping the kerb,” she added.

“That’s described as the way he travelled all the way down to the Trinity Avenue slip road towards dock gate one.”

The court heard how the other driver made the decision to pass Caky’s vehicle in order to arrive at the gate first and ask a security officer to report his concerns to the port police.

When officers arrived at the scene, Caky was found with unsteady feet and bloodshot eyes, standing beside his parked truck – the driver’s door open and the engine still running – at Dooley terminal.

Caky told magistrates: “I wasn’t aware I was swerving or driving in the manner described. I was driving straight.

“After I passed the gate, I stopped the truck to unlock the trailer, and that’s when the police came.”

Magistrates banned Caky from driving for 16 months and fined him £300, but deemed the sum served by the time he had spent in custody.

The bench responded in the negative when, upon sentencing, Caky asked the court: “Are you going to take me back to Felixstowe?”