'Foolishness and lack of insight' into alcohol and driving led to a local motorist being banned from driving for 12 months and fined £100 by magistrates this week.

Magistrates sitting in Tenby on Tuesday heard how officers on mobile patrol acted on information received and attended at Sandyhill Road, Saundersfoot, shortly before midnight on October 17.

They discovered a Mazda vehicle at a 90 degree angle across the carriageway with its rear end embedded in the grass bank of the property named 'Highlands', explained Mr. Nick Newton for the Crown Prosecution Service.

House-to-house inquiries revealed that the owner, Richard Mark Noyce, lived at the property concerned and on speaking to the officers, the defendant confirmed the vehicle was his and when asked how it had come to be in such a position, he said that the 'handbrake must have failed'.

The officers could smell intoxicants on his breath and a subsequent roadside breath test proved positive.

Noyce confirmed that he had not consumed alcohol since he last drove, and as a result was arrested and conveyed to Pembroke Dock police station where an intoximeter test revealed he was over the drink-drive limit, with 51 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of breath. The legal limit is 35 mg.

During police interview, Noyce said he had parked his car in the driveway after driving home from Saundersfoot where he had consumed four pints of lager.

Representing Noyce, defence solicitor, Mr. James Subbiani, told the court that it was his client's 'frankness and honesty' with the police that had led him to appearing before the court.

Mr. Subbiani explained that the defendant had given a lift home to a friend on the night in question as it was cold and wet.

"He stupidly drove and with hindsight realises he was extremely foolish," said Mr. Subbiani, who went on to tell the bench that the defendant had only recently returned to Pembrokeshire and set-up his own mobile computer business, but without a driving licence it it looked likely that he would have to close the business and return to Bristol to work in the IT field.

"It is a very sad conclusion through his foolishness and lack of insight into alcohol and driving," added Mr. Subbiani.

Noyce was also given eight penalty points and ordered to pay £55 costs.