A husband and wife will be living on benefits for the foreseeable future after losing their driving licences on the same night.

Lisa and Mark Ellis, of Porthoustock, St Keverne were both caught by police for drink driving, after they followed each other in separate vehicles the quarter of a mile to their home.

The pair each pleaded guilty before Truro Magistrates’ Court to drink driving at St Keverne on April 4 this year.

Lisa, aged 47, tested at 67 mcg, nearly twice the limit, and her husband Mark, aged 50, tested at 73 mcg, just over twice the limit.

Alison May, for the CPS, said police had stop checked Mark Ellis in a van and his wife had pulled up behind him in another vehicle.

Both were over the limit at the roadside test and were arrested. Neither had previous convictions.

Jeremy Leaning, solicitor for the pair, said they lived in a remote rural location where they were dependent on driving licences for their work. Mark was a self-employed electrician and Lisa worked at a health centre in Helston.

“Both will be catapulted from work to claiming benefit as a result of disqualification,” he told the magistrates.

Their home was about a quarter of a mile from the pub where both had gone for a drink, travelling in separate vehicles straight from work. Each was fined £110 and £105 costs and surcharge and banned from driving for 17 months.