A CAR collided several times with a bridge wall before failing to take a right-hand bend and crashing into a gate post, a court was told.

Blackburn magistrates heard the driver, Dale Graham Counsell, was staggering after climbing out of the passenger side of the vehicle being driven from Waddington towards Clitheroe.

And a subsequent breathalyser test showed he was more than three times the legal drink-drive limit.

Counsell, 35, of Netherfield Gardens, in Nelson, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol. He was fined £500 with £55 costs and disqualified from driving for 30 months.

Counsell, who gave a reading of 112 against the legal limit of 35, agreed to be referred to a drink-drive rehabilitation programme which, if completed successfully, will reduce his ban by up to 25 per cent.

Dermot Woodhead, defending, said Counsell was employed by a firm in Leeds as a print demonstrator.

"He travels the length and breadth of the country and his business mileage is between 40,000 and 50,000 miles a year," said Mr Woodhead. "It has been made crystal clear to him that he will lose his job immediately a period of disqualification is imposed."

He said Counsell had been for a meal with friends in Waddington. His intention was to leave his car and take a taxi back to Clitheroe where he would spend the night at a friend's house.

"During the night there was a disagreement and he took the view it would be appropriate for him to leave," said Mr Woodhead.