A FORMER altar boy ploughed his car into a hedge after hitting a pothole while over the drink-drive limit, magistrates have heard.

Conor James McHugh, 19, had been visiting friends at university in Aberystwyth when they decided to go for a drive on the B4353 toward Borth as an alarm at the property they were staying at was going off.

McHugh, who pleaded guilty to drink-driving, had been out with friends the night before but they had gone for breakfast after being woken by the alarm and then deciding to go for a drive.

Prosecutor Steve Davies said police were called to an incident at around 10.30am and when they got there, saw a passenger in the car and McHugh, of 17 Caenewydd Close, Culverhouse Cross in Cardiff, on his phone to the AA.

His car had suffered minor damage with plastic around the left front wheel arch broken and scrapes along the side of the car.

Police spoke to McHugh, who admitted that he was the driver and then failed a breath test. A test at Aberystwyth Police Station showed that he had 54 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

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