A FORMER Gurkha soldier who drove his car at night without the lights on was found to be drink-driving when stopped by police, a court heard on Wednesday.

Purna Bahadur Darlami, 54, of Fareham Close, Swindon, pleaded guilty before magistrates in Swindon to driving above the legal alcohol limit.

Prosecutor Pauline Lambert told the court that police had seen Darlami driving along Courtney Road in Swindon at 6.30pm on January 1 this year with no headlights.

They followed him as he drove about 100 metres along Marlowe Avenue.

Police then turned on their blue lights, and then their sirens until Darlami pulled over.

He told police he had had one drink.

The police station intoxiliser gave a reading of 43 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Darlami told the court he had been in the Army for 15 years and now worked in the officers’ mess at Bulford Camp, near Salisbury.

Magistrates disqualified him from driving for 13 months, fined him £240 and ordered him to pay £85 court costs and a victim surcharge of £30.

Darlami elected to attend a drink driver’s rehabilation course at his own expense which would decrease the length of disqualification by 13 weeks.