Drunk BMW driver seen swigging from half empty bottle of rum before hit-and-run

Standing in a hotel lobby, Tom Ferguson takes a swig from a half empty bottle of a rum. He is intoxicated and unsteady on his feet and clings to a desk to keep his balance.

Ferguson had just been ordered to leave the Premier Inn in Stockport, where he had been on a four-day bender, over his ‘disruptive behaviour’. When the hotel manager visited his room to check he was leaving, she found him lying on the bed in his boxers, surrounded by nine empty bottles of Captain Morgan’s rum.

After coming round, a drunken Ferguson went to reception wearing untied trainers and told the woman: “I’m leaving now.” CCTV footage then captured him staggering towards his BMW in the car park of the hotel.

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Despite being more than double the drink-drive limit, he decided to get behind the wheel of the car. Driving at more than twice the speed limit, he swerved between lanes as he raced up Buxton Road.

Moments later, he mounted a pavement, mowing down and killing Robert Palmer in a hit-and-run. The 77-year-old and his wife, Margaret, were walking back to their car after a hospital appointment when he was hit on the morning of November 9 of last year.

Ferguson, 29, was jailed for 12 years at Minshull Street Crown Court on Friday (March 8). Following the hearing, police have released footage that shows the drunken state that Ferguson was in prior to the crash.

The video shows him drinking from a bottle of rum before leaving the hotel and staggering towards his white BMW 1 Series while ‘not walking in a straight line’.

Minshull Street Crown Court heard that other hotel guests saw him stumbling around the carpark. He then got into the driver's seat and left,