A MOTORIST banned and fined after being convicted of drink driving has had his name cleared.

Steven Muschamp, 26, had his appeal against conviction allowed at Burnley Crown Court, where Judge Raymond Bennett quashed the disqualification and the fines.

The judge,sitting with two magistrates, had been told the Crown did not oppose the appeal.

Muschamp, of Snell Grove, Colne, had earlier been fined £240 and ordered off the road for 18 months after being convicted of driving with excess alcohol, failing to stop, using an uninsured vehicle and driving otherwise than in accordance with a licence.

Sharon Watson, for the Crown, told the court identification was the issue. Two police officers made their identifications over a very short period of time when they were chasing him and a second party.

Both officers claimed the person who got out of the passenger side of the vehicle was small. The appellant was five feet two inches tall. The other man in the vehicle was six feet four but the police said the person who got out of the driver's side was small.

Miss Watson said having taken advice, it would not be proper for the Crown to oppose the appeal.