A BUILDING company boss was more than five times the legal alcohol limit when police found him at his works van.

Officers arrived at Charles McIntyre's home after concerned members of the public reported that the vehicle had been driven erratically on Greenock Road.

He was recorded as having 112 micrograms of drink in 100 millilitres of breath but later refused to provide two further legally required specimens for court purposes.

Prosecutor Kerry Marshall told Greenock Sheriff Court that police were alerted to the manner of driving shortly after 9pm on June 14.

The fiscal depute said: "Officers spoke with him and detected a strong smell of alcohol from him.

"He stated, 'I will accept I was driving'."

Marshall was taken to the town's police office where he refused to blow into an intoximeter machine at 10.45pm.

Defence lawyer Charles Drummond said that it was his client's position in court that an employee had been driving the van.

Mr Drummond said: "It appears that there was some sort of incident and the van was brought to Mr McIntyre's house.

"He is 59 years of age and is a builder who employs a number of individuals.

"He tells me that after arriving at Greenock police office his response was that he hadn't been driving the vehicle.

"That's his position, and he did not provide samples for that reason."

Sheriff Linda Smith fined McIntyre, whose address was not given in court, £720 and banned him from the roads for 16 months.