A COMPANY director was more than four times the legal drink drive limit when he was found in his car.

But Blackburn magistrates heard that Geoffrey Lawrence Pye had drunk half a bottle of vodka after stopping the car and that had massively increased the reading.

Daniel King, defending, had previously said the empty vodka bottle was found by the police in the car and his client had always maintained the vodka had been drunk after he had driven.

A forensic analyst had reported that, even if that was the case, Pye would still have been over the limit.

Pye gave a reading of 145 against the legal limit of 35.

The 49 year-old of College Close, Longridge, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol.

After considering expert evidence the magistrates accepted that the majority of the alcohol in Pye's breath was as a result of the vodka he had consumed after he had finished driving.

He was banned from driving for 12 months and fined £650 with £130 costs.