A DRUNKEN motorist drove home from the pub with only three tyres after he had hit a central reservation kerb.

Though on medication for depression, Darin Bailey, 42, knocked back six pints of shandy and two of Guinness at a Totton pub on New Year’s Eve.

He then walked around the town for three hours before getting into his car, but on the way home he hit the kerb and heard a bang. He realised that a headlight had fallen out of its casing and that a tyre was deflating.

So he put on his hazard lights and drove on at about 25mph. Eventually the tyre fell off and he could hear the wheel rim on the road.

At Southampton Crown Court, prosecutor Rufus Taylor said that police arrested Bailey between the Hardley and Heath roundabouts on the A326. He was sick when he tried to take the breath test. A blood sample revealed that he was about two-and-a-half times over the limit.

Bailey, formerly of Long Lane, Holbury, but now living at West Moors Road, Ferndown, admitted driving dangerously and with excess alcohol. He received an eight-month suspended sentence coupled with a three-month night curfew. He was banned from driving for two years and must then take a re-test.