COMPANY boss David Anthony Brown became a target for police after celebrating victory in a clay pigeon shoot.

Blackburn magistrates heard that when stopped driving home in the early hours, Brown was found to be more than one and a half times the legal drink-driving limit.

Brown, 46, of Princess Avenue, Clitheroe, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and was fined £800 and disqualified from driving for 12 months.

Nick Turner, defending, said that on the day of the offence Brown had travelled to Yorkshire to compete in a charity clay pigeon shoot.

He won the competition and on his way home called at the Royal Oak to celebrate his win.

Mr Turner said Brown would normally have walked the 500 yards to his home but realised that his shotgun and cartridges were in the boot of the car.

"He decided it would be safer and wiser to take them home and put them in his secure cabinet," said Mr Turner. "As he got home the police were waiting for him outside his front gate."

Mr Turner said Brown is a director of his own company which manufactures concrete products and employs 22 people.

He said that in the course of his business Brown drives 55,000 miles a year.

"He is going to have to employ a driver just to sustain his business and he is chastened by his appearance here today," said Mr Turner. "He feels it is a tremendous embarrassment to be in court."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.