THE responsibility of looking after his elderly and disabled parents has prevented a drink-driver from Swindon from completing the hours of unpaid work ordered by the town’s magistrates.

Paul Smith, 52, of Deben Crescent, appeared before Swindon magistrates to apply to have the remaining unpaid work hours replaced by a curfew.

In March of this year Smith had been ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work in the community following a drink-driving offence.

He had completed 60 hours but explained to the court on Monday that taking care of his wheelchair-bound mother who suffered from multiple sclerosis was proving difficult to combine with fulfilling the community order.

He said that his father was in the final stages of chemotherapy treatment and was therefore too weak to look after his wife.

“I have had to lift mum up, feed her and things like that,” Smith told the court. He produced a letter to the magistrates backing up his claims of the ill health of his parents.

Chairman of the bench Mrs N O’Connell told Smith the unpaid work order would be replaced by an eight-week tagged curfew operating between the hours of 9pm and 6am.

She explained that although the monitoring company might not be able to install the tagging equipment until the following day, the curfew would take immediate effect on Monday.