A SERIAL drink-driver from Southampton who crashed a van while four times the legal limit has been jailed.

Christopher Fearnley, 30, of St James House, Orchard Lane, was sentenced to three months in prison after admitting driving with excess alcohol.

He was told by bench chairman Sara Locock, sitting at New Forest Magistrates' Court: "We are very well aware that your family will suffer, but that is your responsibility. Your driving was an extreme danger to all road-users, including pedestrians."

The court was told police had said Fearnley crashed the van into a roundabout on the A326 at Totton because he approached it too quickly.

The court was also told that Fearnley had previous drink-drive convictions from 1992 and 1994.

Mitigating solicitor John Motagu said Fearnley's wife was due out of hospital imminently with their prematurely-born son and pleaded with the bench to consider a community penalty.

He added that Fearnley, a maintenance and service engineer with a lift company, had been through a spell of trauma and had gone through a "sustained period of drinking over a number of days".

In addition to the prison sentence, Fearnley was banned from driving for three years.