Magistrates heard that police followed a drink driver as he drove his car home in the early hours after it had broken down the previous day.

Lwimba Chickange, 37, of Wessex Road, Didcot, who holds a Zambian driving licence, was fined £200 with £55 costs and banned from driving for two years when he admitted driving with excess alcohol on January 19.

At Didcot Magistrates' Court, Jan Davies, prosecuting, said officers followed Chickange through Didcot shortly after 2am when officers thought he was speeding. They caught up with him outside his former home in Roebuck Court.

A breath test found 81 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of his breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Walter Scott, defending, said that on the previous day Chickange pushed his Ford Fiesta into a car park at Station Garage, in Didcot, when it would not start, and cycled to work at Timbalex, in Didcot, where he is a car parts project operator.

He drank three or four cans of lager with a friend in the evening, before walking to the car to make sure it was secure.

But when it started after switching on the ignition, he decided to drive the journey of less than a mile to his home, where he thought the car would be safe, said Mr Scott.

Chickange did not think he had been driving too fast.

He was given the option of a six months' reduction in the disqualification if he undergoes a drink-driver rehabilitation course.