Jones admits dangerous driving (From Worcester News)

Jones admits dangerous driving

1:28pm Friday 19th March 2010 in

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Bruce Jones has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving.

The 57-year-old, who played Coronation Street's Les Battersby for 10 years, grabbed the steering wheel from his wife Sandra and tried to crash their Mercedes M Class car at high speed on a busy road.

Jones, who appeared under his real name of Ian Roy Jones, admitted the charge in Mold Crown Court after his trial jury was discharged.

A charge of common assault was ordered to lie on file. Jones also admitted drink-driving. He was two-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit, the court was told.

Jones, who was put in handcuffs and taken into custody on Thursday night for breaching his bail by sleeping at the family home, decided in the interim to change his plea. When court reconvened, Mr D'Souza told the judge that Jones had changed his mind and did not want to see his wife cross-examined in court again.

"There are no circumstances in which he would wish her to go through that again," he said.

The court heard that Jones's drinking was why he lost his job on Coronation Street.

Outside court, the actor said he wanted to beat his alcohol addiction and save his marriage.

He issued a statement through his barrister, Dominic D'Souza, and stood next to him as he said: "Mr Jones accepts for the first time that he has an alcohol problem which he needs to address. It is one that has caused him significant problems over the last five or six years and resulted finally in him being in this situation today.

"He very much wants to address this with privacy and get his life together and save a marriage that has lasted over 26 years."