A 66-year-old claimed hearing about the horrors his mother suffered as a prisoner in Auschwitz led him to drink and drive. 

Stephen Groves, of Forest Grove in Thornwood, was stopped by police in The Plain, Epping, on May 22 and found to have twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood. 

He told Chelmsford Magistrates Court yesterday that he had earlier visited his 93-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia. 

Groves said that, although his mother's short term memory had been badly affected by her condition, it had unlocked harrowing memories of her time in the concentration camp. 

He told the court: “She has quite vivid recollections of her traumas in Auschwitz. 

“As children, me and my sister were never told very much at all about what happened but with her dementia she's become more graphic.” 

Groves said he was so distressed by the visit that he stopped at a pub on his way home and drank three pints of ale, which were each nine per cent proof. 

He said he was unaware the drinks were so strong, adding he had recently lost his job, had been suffering from depression due to his mother's condition and was in the process of splitting from his partner. 

He added: “On the day all those things led up to me sitting on my own at the pub and I had one too many.” 

He was disqualified from driving for 20 months and ordered to pay a £290 fine and £264 costs.