A DRUNK motorist crashed into cars at a pub then hit a hedge at speed after consuming up to 30 pints and cans of Guinness within 24 hours.

Nikolas Ball, 25, crashed his BMW convertible into numerous cars parked at The Plough Inn pub, in Marlborough Road, Badbury, before hitting the hedge with such force that all his tires deflated. He was driving at more than three times the legal drink-drive limit.

At Swindon Magistrates Court on Wednesday, he was given an 18-month suspended sentence order, banned from the roads for 31 months and told to pay £85 costs.

Keith Ballinger, prosecuting, said that police received a call from someone at The Plough Inn on August 21 at about 4.30pm to say that a motorist had smashed into cars in the car park.

Witnesses described a vehicle coming from Swindon being driven erratically in the direction of the pub, before turning into the car park. After driving around the car park at speed and banging into cars, it rejoined Marlborough Road, sped across three carriageways and hit the hedge.

“The tires have deflated due to the force of the impact and the driver is subsequently seen to walk away from that vehicle, heading down the road towards Swindon,” said Mr Ballinger.

Police officers located Ball stumbling along the A419 at Badbury.

He was unsteady on his feet, his speech was slurred, he smelt strongly of alcohol and officers believed he was drunk. The keys to the crashed BMW were found on him. A test at Gablecross police station revealed he had 131 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

In a police interview, Ball said he started drinking the evening before the incident and consumed between 10 and 15 pints of Guinness.

Then the next day, he drunk between 10 and 15 cans of Guinness, as well as vodka and Red Bull.

Mr Ballinger said: “He said he had decided to go for a pint and had driven his car. He remembered driving into the car park of the pub and remembered banging into something and agreeing to pay for the damage.”

Ball, of The Birches, Marlborough Road, had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to driving with excess alcohol and dangerous driving.

Gordon Hotson, defending, said Ball entered an early guilty plea and had since started voluntary sessions with the Swindon and Wiltshire Drug and Alcohol Service.

“Alcohol has impaired his judgment and he has not drunk since this incident. He is devastated by what he has done,” he said.

“He realises fully the implications of his offending.

“He understands also what could have happened. Fortunately nothing did, apart from the damage which was ostensibly to his own vehicle.”

Ball was given an 18-month suspended sentence order, with a supervision requirement, a specified activity requirement to complete an alcohol addiction package, and 250 hours of unpaid work.

He was warned that he would be jailed for four months if he fails to comply with the order.