AN ISLE of Wight Festival employee, who drove workers around using a golf buggy, but ended up on Fairlee Road while more than twice the drink-drive limit, has appeared before magistrates.

Joshua Owen, of Beauchamp Drive, Newport, admitted driving the buggy whilst unfit through drink, on June 18.

At around 11.20pm, a witness saw him driving the golf buggy on the main Newport to Ryde road before stopping abruptly, Ann Smout, prosecuting, told Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court.

When police questioned him, Owen initially denied he had been drinking, but later conceded he'd "had a few", before being breath-tested.

At Newport Police Station, he provided an alcohol breath reading of 81 microgrammes.

The legal limit is 35.

Mrs Smout said the reason he had been charged with being unfit to drive through alcohol, rather than drink-driving, was because he had driven a mechanically propelled vehicle, not adapted for road use, rather than a motor vehicle.

The Crown Prosecution Service subsequently dropped charges of driving a motor vehicle otherwise than in accordance with a licence, and using a motor vehicle on a road or public place without third party insurance.

Owen told the police he used the golf buggy to provide lifts to fellow festival workers on the site — but somehow ended up driving it on Fairlee Road.

For Owen, Jim Osborne said his client had only driven a short distance on the highway and had, as a result of his actions, "suffered considerable financial difficulty" — festival organisers refusing to pay him over the incident.

Magistrates banned Owen from driving for 12 months and ordered him to pay an £80 fine, with £85 costs and a £32 victim surcharge.