Over-the-limit Bangor motorist crashed vehicle into a ditch near Toomebridge

Robert Steven White (59), of Ballyhalbert Gardens, Bangor, admitted driving with excess alcohol in the Moneynick Road area on March 1.

Antrim Magistrates Court, sitting in Ballymena, heard police received a report at 1.17am of a vehicle down a bank and when police arrived they found a Nissan Duke in a ditch.

The driver said he came off the road at a roundabout. He said he had been visiting relatives and had a "few drinks" and was driving home.

When taken to a police station in Dungannon he had an alcohol in breath reading of 89 - the legal limit is 35.

The defendant told the court there was no excuse for what he had done and it was "totally out of character".

District Judge Nigel Broderick banned him from driving for 14 months and fined him £250 whilst saying: "That's a high reading. You are lucky you didn't kill yourself or somebody else."