A FORMER Tory MP has admitted drink-driving after he crashed his Jaguar into a camper van where a 71-year-old woman was sleeping before 'stumbling' away from the scene.
At Oxford Magistrates' Court on Tuesday, Matthew Gordon-Banks, who served as the MP for Southport between 1992 and 1997, and now lives in Charlbury, also admitted to charges of driving while disqualified and driving without insurance in relation to the same incident.
The 56-year-old, who was given a two year driving ban in February after admitting drink-driving in 2015, also pleaded guilty to one charge of fraud relating to providing false information to Aviva insurance about this disqualification on March 10.
Peter Ryman, prosecuting, told the court that on March 14 at about 2am Gordon-Banks, who defected to the Lib Dems in 2004, had been driving along Charlbury Road when he crashed into the back of a stationary red Volkswagen camper van.
The 71-year-old woman who owned the van and used it as her home was sleeping inside at the time.
Police who attended the scene found the rear of the van dented and Gordon-Banks' green Jaguar badly damaged and abandoned 200 yards away in a hedge.
Mr Ryman told the court an officer found Gordon-Banks 'stumbling' along the road 'so intoxicated he had to steady himself against a garden wall.'
He was taken to Banbury Police Station and then sent to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford to be treated for a possible concussion.
Blood tests found that he had 176 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood, putting him more than twice the legal limit of 80mg.
During the same hearing Gordon-Banks, of The Green, Charlbury, also pleaded guilty to further charges of driving while disqualified and without insurance in Nine Acres Lane, Charlbury, on October 20.
Sunil Rupasinha, in mitigation, said his client regretted his actions and had been suffering from 'complex and active' post traumatic stress disorder related to his military service.
He added: "He was formerly an upstanding citizen who served as an MP. This is a traumatised individual."
The case was adjourned until December 13 so a full a psychiatric report and a pre-sentence report can be prepared.
Gordon-Banks was released but chairman of the bench, Paul Hardy, warned he would very likely be immediately remanded in custody if he was caught behind the wheel of a car again.
He added: "This is a complex case but we take these matters extremely seriously and we have a duty to protect the public from you driving."
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