A salesman who lied to his dealership about having a clean driving licence has now been convicted of drink-driving for the second time.

John Kendrick Yates was working for a Citroen dealership despite serving a drink-driving ban because he had told them his licence was clean.

Then he was found at the wheel of a Citroen C5 on July 28 by police, who discovered he had five times the legal limit of alcohol in his breath - 183mg - Macclesfield magistrates were told.

Yates, of Handforth near Wilmslow, admitted drink-driving, driving while disqualified, having no insurance and fraud by misrepresentation and was jailed for 26 weeks.

He was also banned from driving for four years.

The dealership sacked him once his lie was discovered.

Dealer management software company Pinewood has recently introduced licence checking software, called Licence Link, which is aimed at dealers.

Managing director Neville Briggs said: “In recent years, changes in corporate risk management, especially the arrival of the Corporate Manslaughter Act, have made it essential for dealers to ensure that all their staff are legal to drive.

"Unless you take a thorough approach to licence checking, ideally by using a system such as ours that links directly to the DVLA to look at employee driving convictions, it can be all too easy for employees who have something to hide to lie about the state of their licence.

"If you don’t take preventative action and there is a serious incident involving someone who should not be beyond the wheel of one of your cars, the blame can be laid directly onto you and your business.”