CARER Matthew MacLellon was four times over the drink-drive limit when he went to Swindon railway station to pick up his girlfriend, magistrates heard.

Police were tipped off after the vodka drinker’s car collided with another in the car park.

Pauline Lambert, prosecuting, told the hearing in Swindon on Wednesday officers went to the station at 8.40pm on September 28 after another driver called to say the driver of a Renault Laguna who hit his vehicle appeared to be drunk.

There were no injuries and the drivers had exchanged details, but when police arrived the offending driver was nowhere to be seen.

Forty minutes later they saw him reversing out of a parking space and driving a short distance along the road. At that point they stopped him.

Later at the police station the lowest breath test reading he gave was 141 micrograms – the limit is 35.

McLellon, aged 47, of Bakers Field, Lyneham, pleaded guilty to drink-driving and was banned from getting behind the wheel for 32 months.

His solicitor Harriet Heard said he was exceedingly nervous about the court hearing and had turned up with his mother whose health had been affected by the case.

“He is very upset about the impact this has had, mostly on other people,” she told the bench.

“He does have an issue with alcohol and he accepts that.”

He also believed it was a blessing in some way that the case had come to court.

McLellon was drinking daily after work and had not thought he was over the limit on the day, she said. He had been working part time as a carer for a young man with Down’s syndrome.

But a couple of days after his arrest he had to explain he would not be able to do the job any more. He felt he had let the young man down.

“He feels punished in so far as he has lost his job but he is aware of the seriousness of the offence," said Ms Heard.

"He is very grateful that no one was hurt and he is well aware that it could have been a lot worse.”

The magistrates heard in a probation report that McLellon was a vodka drinker and some days he would have a couple of glasses while on others he would finish off a bottle. When he went home after work he would usually drink. He claimed he was not alcoholic but accepted he needed help.

As well as the driving ban, McLellon was given a 12-month community order with a six-month alcohol treatment requirement. The bench also told him to pay £140 towards victim services and £45 court costs.