A HONDA worker who took over the driving from a friend to reverse a car into his driveway has been banned from the roads for three years.

Marcin Piasecki, 42, of Shrivenham Road, appeared before magistrates in Swindon on Wednesday charged with driving while over the legal alcohol limit.

Piasecki, from Poland, required the services of an interpreter. He pleaded guilty to the charge.

Prosecutor Nick Barr told the court that at 11.45pm on December 4 last year police received a report from a concerned member of the public that a red VW van was being driven in an erratic fashion.

At midnight the police saw the van in Shrivenham Road, straddled across the road and reversing slowly, Mr Barr said. The front offside tyre was deflated and shredded.

When the police approached they noticed that Piasecki’s speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol.

A breath test at the police station recorded a level of 85 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Mr Barr told the court that Piasecki had one previous conviction for a similar offence in April 2014.

Mike Pulsford, defending, said Piasecki was not driving the van at the time it was reported. He had had a night out with a friend and the friend had been driving.

The tyre had become shredded when the van hit the kerb on the drive back to Piasecki’s house. Despite the fact that he had been drinking, Piasecki took over the driving to reverse the van into the driveway. Mr Pulsford said Piasecki was a hard-working single man who had worked at Honda for a long time.

Piasecki was disqualified from driving for 36 months, fined £300 and ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £30.