Doctor ‘was sleepwalking as he drove four times over limit’

Donald Clegg, 59, from Prestwich, Bury, asked magistrates to suspend any driving ban for “special reasons” owing to his state of “parasomnia”, in that he was not aware of what he was doing while sleepwalking.

He was almost four times over the limit when he got out of bed and into his car, still wearing his nightgown and slippers, Bury Magistrates’ Court heard.

He drove for a mile while still “asleep” before crashing into parked cars and was talking incoherently about driving to his mother’s house when bystanders snapped the car key in the ignition to stop him driving away again, the court heard.

Clegg pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and without due care and attention on December 8 last year.