Two journalists from the Melton Times seized the perfect opportunity for a night of heavy drinking - for the sake of investigative journalism, of course!

The paper's Mike Roberts and Claire Long decided to engage in a scientific experiment, of sorts, to determine how far over the driving limit they would be the following day.

To ensure maximum effect, Mike and Claire didn't hold back and over the course of three and a half hours, Mike downed seven pints of Stella and two large glasses of wine, whilst Claire consumed a mixture of wine, alcopops and spirits.

Mike said: "Here was the perfect opportunity to get plastered and still be at work - all with the editor's blessing and on expenses!

"It was a tough assignment! I'm always on the look out for an opportunity to drink though and it was a really good night."

The pair were driven to see Sgt Phil Burrows at Hamilton Police Station for a breath test the next morning to see how much they were over the limit, nine hours after they stopped drinking.

Mike was surprised to see that at the time he would normally be driving to work, he was 6mg over the limit of 35mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath.

He said: "It was a real eye-opener and it makes you think. Needless to say I had a headache that day and I didn't get much work done!"

Claire on the other hand recorded a reading of zero on the breathalyser, despite suffering from a terrible hangover and having been sick.

However retired policeman Neil Hughes, who inspired Mike's experiment, put this down to the fact that in general women absorb alcohol into the blood slower than men do, and also on her impromptu appointment with the toilet basin.

Mike said: "It shows how you can never be certain. Trying to gauge whether you are safe to drive is complete guesswork and that's the point."

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