A FATHER-OF-TWO who drink-drove to hospital after a friend fell and blacked out, has been banned from driving.

Martin Pace, 36, had been drinking strong cider during the day on July 31 when the fall happened, magistrates’ heard.

The forklift truck driver “panicked” when his friend dislocated her hip, and he took her to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital, said John Berry, defending.

Mr Berry told Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Friday: “While he was there he was a little critical of some of the procedures and, because he had been drinking he had to leave.”

Pace, from Brookmead Drive, Wallingford, was pulled over by police at 1.43am, while driving home. Police found he had 80 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, where the limit is 35.

Pace admitted driving with excess alcohol and was banned for driving for 20 months, to be reduced by 25 per cent if he completes a drink driving course. He was fined £300 with a £30 victims’ surcharge and £85 costs.