A 35-YEAR-OLD man drowned his sorrows after a friend revealed that his wife had been having an affair.

Blackburn magistrates heard that David Strong then went for a drive to clear his head and gather his thoughts but ended up in a field where police found him.

Strong, of Bury Old Road, Whitefield, Manchester, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and was fined £300 with £55 costs and disqualified from driving for 18 months.

Strong, who gave a reading of 72 against the legal limit of 35, agreed to be referred to the drink drive rehabilitation programme which, if completed successfully, could reduce his ban by up to 25 per cent.

Tom Snape, prosecuting, said police had come across the car in a field near Longridge at 4.15am. Strong was still in the vehicle.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said Strong lived in Whitefield with his wife and their 11-year-old son and it was the boy's asthma which had led to them buying a caravan in Longridge.

He said the family had spent most weekends at the caravan, to help with the boy's condition, but over recent months the wife's enthusiasm for the caravan seemed to have waned. "My client and his son continued to attend and over the weekend of this incident he attended a leaving party at the site," said Mr Church-Taylor. "He was sat at the bar and, because of the problems he and his partner were having, he was quite depressed."

He said Strong was at the bar when a friend from the site came and asked what was wrong and Strong began to relate the problems he and his partner were having. "The friend said he suspected as much because he knew the wife was having an affair," said Mr Church-Taylor.

"He was told that on a previous occasion, when my client was staying in hospital with his son, his wife had actually brought her paramour to the site. This was devastating news for my client."

Mr Church-Taylor said Strong went back to the caravan but could not settle and went for a drive to clear his head. He crashed through a fence and hedge into the field after leaning over to switch off the radio because the music was too melancholy.