A PROMINENT businessman “ruined” his daughter’s 10th birthday after he was arrested for drink-driving.

Nicholas Clark Berriman, 42, was almost three times the drink-drive limit when police officers stopped him as he drove through Borth in front of an ambulance that had been called out to check on Berriman.

Berriman, who pleaded guilty to drink-driving, is “in a state of mortification” and realises how dangerous his actions were, especially with his daughter in the car with him, his solicitor said.

Prosecutor Helen Tench said police received a call from Berriman’s daughter at around 4pm on 1 April when she said she could not wake him up.

Police responded to the call and saw Berriman’s car being driven “erratically” in front of the ambulance before they managed to stop Berriman’s Range Rover.

Ms Tench said Berriman’s daughter was “frightened and crying” acc­ording to police.

He smelt strongly of alcohol and despite being initially obstructive failed a roadside breath test.

A further test at Aberystwyth Polic­e Station showed he had 95 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Defence solicitor James Dunstan said Berriman had promised to take his daughter for fish and chips on the beach, but had drunk a bottle of wine before deciding to drive them to the beach.

After Berriman fell asleep, his daughter phoned her mother who advised her to phone the police, but Berriman woke up shortly after­wards.

Mr Dunstan said Berriman, who is one of the two founding partners of Wolverhampton-based estate agency Berriman Eaton, had wanted to “make it up” to his daughter so was driving back to their caravan when he was stopped by police.

Guidelines for magistrates suggested that Berriman should be made subject to a community order­, but Mr Dunstan said Berriman is heavily involved in charity work in his community which could be considered as a form of unpaid work, so a heavy fine should instead be imposed.

He said Berriman’s driving ban and imposing unpaid work could affect the business which Berriman was expecting to earn around £120,000 from this year.

However, magistrates said the high alcohol reading and fact that Berriman had his young daughter in the car with him had persuaded them to follow their guidelines.

Berriman, of Shire Cottage, 4 Patshull Hall Mews, Patshull Park, Burnhill Green, was given a 12-month community order with 80 hours of unpaid work.

He was banned from driving for two years and will pay costs totalling £145.