Brendan Coyle, 'Downton Abbey' John Bates, Banned From Driving After Guilty DUI Charges

Brendan Coyle, best known as the actor who plays long-suffering valet John Bates on the popular period series Downton Abbey, wasn't able to get off the law the way his character did. After pleading guilty to DUI charges last week, the actor has been banned from driving for the next four years and will be facing hours of community service as well.

According to The Associated Press (via ABC News), Coyle, 52, appeared at King's Lynn Magistrates Court last Thursday regarding a charge of drunken driving, to which he pled guilty under his real name, David Coyle. The actor's attorney, Steven Dyble, told the courtroom that he had been returning from a rehab clinic in Thailand at the time he was stopped.

Yibada reports that Dyble also said on the hearing that Coyle has been fighting an alcohol problem for awhile. In fact, following the end of Downton Abbey, for months the actor had turned down work in an attempt to address his addiction. Coyle has reportedly been fighting alcoholism for the past five years, and had another alcohol-related conviction in 2011.

It seems like, at one point, the actor was even asked to leave the set of the hit period show, after he failed to say his lines right.

Coyle's license was removed for a total of 50 months and he was ordered to do 100 hours of unpaid work within a 12-month period, plus being told he must follow through a rehabilitation activity of 15 days, which will be supervised by a probation officer.

The charge came from a New Year's Day incident, when the police stopped him on his BMW convertible and, after taking a breath test, it was found that he had consumed almost three times the legally permitted alcohol limit.

BBC reports that the test showed that there were 98 micrograms of alcohol in 100 milliliters of breath, when the legal limit is 35 micrograms.