WHEN two women he didn't know asked him to drive them home after a night of drinking a man with a provisional licence got behind the wheel of their car despite having been drinking himself.

Edwin Michel, currently of no fixed abode, but staying with a friend temporarily on. Manchester Road pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol, not having insurance or a licence when he came before magistrates sitting in Swindon on Wednesday.

The charges date from May 7 of this year when officers spotted Michel driving a 15-plate Nissan Juke on Padstow Road at around 1.30 in the morning with no lights on.

When officers pulled him over he admitted he had been drinking and he only had a provisional driving licence. When taken to Gablecross he provided a reading of 49 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Defending him, Philip Hall explained that 35-year-old Michel had been drinking with a friend when they were joined by two women he hadn't previously met.

They asked him to drive them home in their car and then come back with the car the next day. As he was making his return journey back to his friend's house having dropped them off he was pulled over by the police.

Chairman of the bench Christine Smith fined him £120, reduced from. £180 for his guilty plea and ordered he put £35 court costs and a £30 victim surcharge.

He was banned from driving for 14 months.