An Oswestry farmer crashed his car into a boundary wall when he was over the drink drive limit, a court heard.

Clive Whittingham’s damaged Hyundai was found abandoned by police in Woolston Bank and there was blood on the airbag.

Officers traced the vehicle to the 61-year-old at his farmhouse and saw he had a cut to his nose and blood on his shirt.

At Telford Magistrates’ Court, Whittingham was disqualified from driving for a year and fined £650 and ordered to pay £135 costs.

The defendant, of Sandford House Farm in West Felton, near Oswestry, had admitted driving with excess alcohol.

The court heard both the defendant’s car and the garden wall were badly damaged in the incident on January 29.

Jenny Winzor, prosecuting, said when police turned up at his farm Whittingham had admitted being the driver of the Hyundai car.

Subsequent tests showed the defendant had 55 microgrammes of alcohol in his breath. The legal limit is 35.

Shaun Davies, for Whittingham, said his client was embarrassed to be in court and that he had been out in the car to get a takeaway meal. The crash happened on a bend in a country lane used by farm vehicles and there was dirt on the road.

He said his client had four pints of beer during the course of the day and said Whittingham had drunk a similar amount in the past and been breath tested, but had not been over the limit.

Mr Davies said a passer-by had taken his client home and he had intended to return with someone else to recover his vehicle using a tractor.