Martin Roberts loses appeal

Martin Roberts has lost his bid to have a driving ban overturned.

The \'Homes Under the Hammer\' star was forbidden from getting behind the wheel for almost two years in April after magistrates heard he refused to submit to a breath test when he was pulled over by police last November but he launched an appeal in which he argued having asthma meant he had tried but failed to complete two blows into a breathalyzer machine.

And Martin argued the one successful reading police obtained - which showed him almost twice over the drink drive limit - could have been contaminated for his medication.

However, the appeal against both conviction and sentence was rejected at Bristol Crown Court on Friday (16.08.19).

Recorder Noel Casey - who heard the appeal with two magistrates - said: "We accept the appellant suffers from asthma but not to an extent much greater than many other sufferers."

The former \'I\'m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!\' contestant described the ruling as a "terrible day for asthma sufferers".

He told Bristol Live: "This is a bad day for me. But it is also a terrible day for asthma sufferers.

"How can it be fair that someone that has a lifelong history of asthma, that declares that asthma to police, is only offered a breathylser test that involves exhaling effectively - and is not offered any alternative way of providing a sample - such as giving blood or urine?"

And Martin has called for a change in the law.

He added: "My failure to provide a sample was for genuine medical reasons. I would have happily provided a blood or urine sample but was never offered the opportunity to do so.

"I believe the law needs to be changed to protect other asthma sufferers like myself from being prejudiced against in this grossly unfair way, by making it mandatory that they are offered an alternative way of providing a sample.

"This matter has caused me and my family unbelievable stress and worry and I am now being faced with a 23 month driving ban and a big fine - equivalent to being ten times over the limit and crashing into a street full of parked vehicles.

"Yet I wasn\'t even in my car, or anywhere near it, when I was stopped by police."

Martin has previously spoken of how he has battled asthma - a long-term inflammatory disease, which affects the airways of the lungs - since he was a child.

However, after a brief stint in \'I\'m A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here!\' in 2016, he credited life in a camp with helping curb the condition.

He previously said: "I\'ve been asthmatic since I was a child, and exercise reduces asthma, so at the start (of the show) I was walking down the stairs, getting the wood and water and stuff like that but gradually, and I haven\'t put my finger on why, could it be the simple foods? Or the fact that there was no process foods, it was all rice and beans, could it be the fact we was outside, could it be exercise?"