DRINKING “homemade medicine” put a man at twice the drink-drive limit when he was stopped by police.
Sigitas Kirkickas (50) claimed not to realise it would make him unsafe to drive, despite it containing alcoholic spirits, when explaining his actions to magistrates in Spalding.
He was banned from driving for 38 months and fined £100. He was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
He admitted drink-driving following the incident on January 23.
Prosecuting, Rebecca Ritson said Kirkickas was stopped in a Ford Transit van by Insp Jim Tyner on Farthingales in Spalding at 10.40am.
He failed a breath test and later gave a reading of 53 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath at the police station. The legal limit is 35.
Mike Alexander, defending, said Kirkickas, of Portland Street, Boston, claimed he had not drunk alcohol for two years.
“It became clear that the bottle Mr Kirkickas was drinking from was homemade medicine,” he said.
He said Kirkickas had taken “three or four swigs” of the spirit-based mixture.
Mr Alexander added: “He did not know he was drinking, he thought that he was taking medicine.”