'Broken' judge fined for drink-driving

Bruce Macmillan resigned from his role as a judge

A former crown court judge who was stopped on the M6 while nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit has been fined £1,200.

Officers pulled over Bruce Macmillan, 63, near Chorley when they spotted him driving erratically on 27 August.

Macmillan, who admitted drinking and driving, was arrested again three weeks later when police found him drunk in charge of his car.

The court heard he was a "broken man" whose life had gone "badly wrong".

Macmillan, from Aigburth on Merseyside, was also banned from driving for two years at Chorley Magistrates' Court.

Bottles of spirits

He was first called to the bar 40 years ago and served as a circuit judge, with "perfect distinction", for 16 years.

But he resigned from his £128,000-a-year job in September, a week before he pleaded guilty to drink-driving on the motorway in Lancashire.

He admitted his second offence of being drunk in charge of a car in Toxteth, Liverpool, before Chorley Magistrates' Court, during the same hearing at which he was sentenced.

He accepts at that point his career was ruined. He was a broken man immediately Stuart Driver QC, defending

On both occasions, he was found with half a bottle of spirits in his car, vodka on the first occasion and gin on the second.

After being stopped on the M6 in August, Macmillan said: "I've not had a drink today, officer."

But tests confirmed him as being three times over the limit and he was charged

Three weeks later police were called by his wife who awoke to find him not at home.

She was so concerned she reported him as a missing, the court heard.

'Cracked under strain'

Officers found him asleep behind the wheel of his car with the keys in the ignition, in Hill Street, Toxteth, Liverpool, with a half-empty bottle of gin.

Stuart Driver QC, told the court that Macmillan had not been able to cope with the pressures of the job and had taken time off work for stress.

In August when, he was first arrested, he had "cracked under the strain", the court heard.

Mr Driver said: "He accepts at that point his career was ruined. He was a broken man immediately."

The magistrates said they were impressed by the self-help Macmillan had sought, as he is currently attending a rehabilitation course for alcoholics.

He was also ordered to pay costs and a victim's surcharge penalty totalling £175.