WILTSHIRE TIMES EXCLUSIVE: A WEST Wiltshire councillor has spoken of his teenage son's shame after he wrote off his car in a drink-drive smash near Trowbridge.

Melksham town and district councillor Richard Wiltshire praised the Wiltshire Times' name-and-shame campaign, revealing how he used our articles to get the message across to his 18-year-old son Jonathan that drink-driving wrecks lives.

The Tory councillor, who was voted into the Melksham Without and Melksham Spa wards at last year's elections, watched on as his son was banned from driving for 14 months by Chippenham Magistrates on Thursday.

Wiltshire was under the influence of alcohol when he careered his car into a road sign on an icy road in Yarnbrook, after a night-out with friends at Club Ice, Westbury.

Cllr Wiltshire, speaking this week from his Roundponds Farm home in Melksham, said his son would pay a high price for his mistake.

"It is a salutary lesson for him. I have been putting your campaign in front of him over the past few weeks. It is a good campaign to warn people of the risks.

"I was thankful he didn't injure anyone else on the road or himself. All the young people think they are invincible.

"He has a very hard lesson to get over but sometimes we have to learn the hard way."

Police were called to the B3097, near the Yarnbrook roundabout, just after 2am on November 28 after Wiltshire ploughed his car into a road sign.

Smelling alcohol on the teenager's breath, officers took him to Melksham police station where he clocked a reading of 99mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood 19mg above the legal limit.

In a statement to the court Wiltshire insisted he only drank one pint of lager and had eaten nothing since lunchtime, blaming the accident on 'inexperienced driving'.

He said: "I don't usually have anything to drink when I am driving as I try to be a responsible driver, but on this occasion I made the mistake in having a drink and was unaware of the effect it would have on my driving.

"I am very sorry about this and would never drink anything alcoholic if I am driving in the future. I realise the seriousness of what I have done and am just glad that no-one else was involved in the crash.

"When I came up towards the Yarnbrook roundabout I saw a cat and so I pressed on the brake, but the car skidded and I was unable to steer the car back and I crashed into the sign."

Magistrates fined Wiltshire £200 and ordered him to pay £55 costs in addition to the driving ban.

Wiltshire agreed to take part in a driver rehabilitation course which, if completed successfully, will take three months off his total ban.

The course educates convicted drink-drivers about the damaging effects their crime can have on innocent lives.

Cllr Wiltshire, who is the district council's environmental services portfolio-holder, said the course should be made available as part of an extended driving test.

It would be a very useful experience. I think it is something that could be included as part of the driving test, he said.

LANDSCAPE gardener Dean Holton was two-and-a-half times over the drink-drive limit when he ploughed his car into a road sign on a Trowbridge roundabout.

Holton, 26, downed six pints of lager with friends at a town centre pub before crashing his Vauxhall Astra into a road sign in Hilperton.

Two breath samples were taken at Melksham police station with a lowest reading of 95mg per 100ml of breath almost three times over the limit.

Defence solicitor Trevor Line said Holton, of Kings Garden, Hilperton, could not remember much about the moments leading up to the crash but had pleaded guilty at the first chance.

Chippenham magistrates handed him a 60-hour community punishment order, a two-year driving ban and an order to pay £55 costs.

Police in Warminster have reported an alarming 300 per cent rise in drink driving arrests for January. Four drivers were found over the limit at the weekend taking the monthly total to seven.

Sgt Alison Allin said: This is a very surprising number of people still drink-driving. We would expect to arrest only two or three each month.

To find four in one weekend shows that some people are still out there doing it and the message is not getting through.

Some of the arrests were made following tip-offs from members of the public.