A DRINK-DRIVER who ploughed into a parked car in Aberaeron and shunted it into the main road was more than twice the drink-drive limit.

David John Maher, 31, admitted drink-driving on 20 May, with magistrates hearing that he had smashed into a parked car while driving his work van after a night drinking.

Prosecutor Helen Tench said police were called to the crash scene just after midnight and found that the van being driven by Maher had hit a parked car on the A487 North Road in Aberaeron and both vehicles had suffered “substantial damage”.

Ms Tench said the parked car had been hit with so much force that it had pushed it out into the main carriageway from the parking bay it had been left in.

Police spoke to Maher, of The Manse, Rhiwbwys in Llanrhystud, and noticed that he smelt of alcohol. He failed a roadside breath test and a further test showed that he had 87 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, more than double the legal limit of 35.

Maher told police that he had been out drinking with friends and had been driving the van, but didn’t know why he had hit the parked car, but just remembered the airbags going off and realising that he “had f***** up”.

Defence solicitor Iestyn Davies said Maher had lost his job following the incident as he had to drive thousands of miles a year and said that Maher was sorry for making a “mistake”.

He said Maher had been out drinking with friends in Aberaeron, but after they got split up, he decided to drive to Aberarth as he thought that was where they would be.

Mr Davies said: “Clearly it was a mistake, clearly he’s very sorry about that.”

He added that while damage had been caused to both vehicles, the cost of repairing it had been handled by an insurance company.

Maher was banned from driving for 22 months. He was also fined £120 and will pay costs of £115.