STUNNED motorists called the police after they spotted a middle-aged man swigging lager behind the wheel of a car.

Stuart Colley was more than three times the limit when he was seen driving along a busy dual carriageway near Swindon drinking from a can of beer.

Magistrates heard that the 53-year-old landscape garden-er was heading home along the A419 in his N-reg Renault Laguna when other road users saw him supping from the can.

When he was stopped at the Turnpike roundabout in Blunsdon he failed a roadside test and a later breath test showed he had 110mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

Swindon magistrates heard Colley had a previous convict-ion for drink-driving from 1992 when he was banned from the road for five years.

Colley, of Painswick, Gloucestershire, pleaded guilty to drink-driving.

Magistrates ordered that he serve a 200-hour commun-ity service order and pay £55 costs. He was also banned form the road for three years.

Roger Jones, defending, said "A salient feature about the facts of the case is this: the police stopped him because of a report from a right-minded citizen. He was seen to be drinking from a can and that was enough for the police to stop him.

"He was not stopped because his driving was in any way bad, despite the high level of alcohol subsequently found in his breath."

He added that his client had been drinking the night before and that may have affected the reading his client gave after he was arrested at 6pm on Friday, August 9.