Multi-millionaire property developer Samuel Morrison gets 12-month drink-driving ban

​Samuel Morrison, regularly rated as one of Northern Ireland's wealthiest people, was also fined £500 and District Judge Nigel Broderick said given what he had been told about the 72-year-old “I assume 28 days to pay would suffice”.

Appearing in the dock of Antrim Magistrates’ Court, sitting in Ballymena, Morrison, from the Islandreagh Road in Antrim, entered a guilty plea to driving with excess alcohol.

In addition to the drink-driving charge, a prosecution lawyer confirmed the PPS were withdrawing a further charge of resisting police and that Morrison would be given a police caution for assaulting a police officer.

She told the court it was in the early hours of December 23 last year when the night porter at the Dunadry Hotel contacted police that Morrison was “trying to drive off in his Range Rover”.

Officers arrived and suspecting that Morrison was under the influence, he was taken into custody where he gave a sample of breath which was found to have a reading of 73, just over twice the legal limit of 35.

Lodging a plea in mitigation defence KC Gavan Duffy described Morrison was a “self made business man,” principally involved in property development and that in his business life “he has made numerous, positive contributions to society in general and to his local community”.

Emphasising that Morrison is a “very private person who keeps himself to himself,” the senior barrister said the pensioner’s court appearance “is a matter of considerable embarrassment”.