A drink-driver who left his damaged car in the middle of a road had been driving home from a works party after a lift fell through, magistrates have heard.

Daniel Davies, 49, admitted drink-driving and failing to stop after a crash on 15 December after police received a report that a car was being driven erratically on the B4338 near Llanybydder.

Kevin Challinor, prosecuting, said police received the report at around 8pm with concerns about the manner of driving of a car.

Officers then found a car matching the description in the road with damage, including two front tyres which Mr Challinor said had been “destroyed”.

A passing motorist stopped and spoke to officers saying that they had seen a man staggering in the road nearby. This led to officers going to the area and stopping a car in which Davies, of Cartref, Gorsgoch, was a passenger.

At first Davies wouldn’t get out of the car when asked to by officers, but eventually did with Mr Challinor saying that officers saw Davies stagger while doing so and noticed that he smelt of alcohol.

Mr Challinor said when he was giving a roadside breath sample, Davies initially was sucking rather than blowing into the machine, but eventually gave a positive test.

A reading at the police station showed he had 80 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 80.

While that was ongoing, police had received a call from a homeowner who reported that a wall had been hit by a car and damaged.

Checks at the scene found bits of a car matching Davies’s car.

Davies told officers that he had been driving after drinking and may have hit a wall.

Defence solicitor Janem Jones said Davies, who works at Dunbia, had been at a work function and had thought he would be able to get a lift, but was unable to, so decided to drive.

She said that his arrest and the court case had seriously affected Davies and he had been “too ashamed” to go to work recently.

Ms Jones said while Davies has family support, he may have to move to the Llanybydder area to be able to continue with his job.

Davies was banned from driving for 20 months. He was also fined £200 and will pay costs of £115.