A JOBLESS man cleared of conspiracy to murder last year has lost his driving licence after magistrates heard how he walked a dog while driving a car with the window down.

Paul Railton, 23, was exercising the lurcher while driving a Nissan Navara at about 5mph along a quiet County Durham country road when he was stopped by police in a marked car.

Yesterday, at Consett Magistrates’ Court, Railton pleaded guilty to not being in proper control of a vehicle at about 2.20pm on December 4 in Stonyheap Lane, near Consett.

Sharon Lowrie, prosecuting, said a cyclist alerted police that two men were dragging a dog along from a car.

She said: “The driver was hanging onto the dog’s lead through the driver window, approaching a blind summit.”

Paul Donoghue, mitigating, said Railton had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.

He said: “He accepts it was a silly thing to do. It was probably borne out of laziness.”

Railton was one of five people accused of involvement in the attempted murder of Consett man Joe Clarke who was blasted in the back with 150 shotgun pellets near his home in December 2007.

The case was thrown out of Newcastle Crown Court in July last year after Deputy High Court Judge Sir Geoffrey Grigson heard how detectives had “seriously undermined the rule of law” by searching through confidential legal files at the Shotley Bridge home of Mr Donoghue.

The court heard Neil Spoor, who was also cleared of conspiracy to murder, was a passenger in the car at the time Railton was stopped.

Mr Donoghue told magistrates: “He is often under surveillance.

The Crown says this was a chance meeting, but Mr Railton suspects they were there for him having been involved in a case that collapsed in spectacular fashion.”

Railton, who is unemployed, was fined £66, must pay costs of £43 and a legal surcharge of £15. He had three penalty points added to his licence and, because he already had nine, meant he was banned from driving for six months.