Stories that beat the breathalyser

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 31

Stories that beat the breathalyser

NZPA-AAP London Have you heard the one about the bloke who got off a drunk-driving charge because he said the camphor he smeared on his lips activated the breathalyser? Sounds like a typical story heard in so many pubs over a few beers, doesn’t it?

But Robert Todd is a trombonist who claimed he smeared the camphor on his lips to help his playing and that this had set off the breathalyser. An English court believed him and he was acquitted. Todd’s story is just the latest in a series of unlikely explanations which have helped to beat the breathalyser. There was, for example, the story of a Dorset bakery worker who claimed his body had adopted the unfortunate practice of behaving like a distillery when he ate yeast. Evidence that he had| been eating high-yeast pastries off the conveyer belt just before he was caught swung the case and he got off with a conditional discharge. A Yorkshireman got away with a clean licence because he kept his mouth shut and merely grinned at the police who questioned him. He argued that there

were no question marks on the statement form, and so there were no questions and he was not obliged to answer.

Not all these far-fetched stories succeed, however — a Manchester fire-eater was not so lucky when he claimed his high-octane breath was a result of the mixture of methylated spirit and lighter fuel used in his act.

The magistrate preferred to believe otherwise and banned him from driving.