MOTORIST Stewart Goddard has been banned from driving for three years after being caught at the wheel of Nissan Bluebird with only four points over the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

Kennet magistrates, sitting at Devizes on Tuesday, heard that Goddard, 58, of Colston Road, Devizes, was driving while over the limit, with no insurance and no driving licence three years after he was convicted for a very similar series of offences.

Anna Humphreys, prosecuting, told the court that a police patrol had been summoned to Rowde on the evening of August 14 after a Nissan Bluebird had failed to stop.

The police did manage to stop the car and breathalysed the driver at the roadside. Goddard's sample was so borderline that he was offered the option of taking a blood test which registered a reading of 84 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80.

But because of his previous conviction, Goddard had to be disqualified for a minimum of three years.

He told the bench that he had borrowed the car to go out and celebrate his engagement and his 58th birthday.

Although Goddard told the bench he had no intentions of ever driving again, he accepted the offer of taking a drink-driver's rehabilitation course, which, if completed, would reduce his ban by nine months.

He was fined £110 for drink driving, £55 for having no licence, and £110 and banned for a further six months for having no insurance.