A BUILDER has been banned from the roads after drink-driving when a date went badly.

Igor Sorokin entered a guilty plea when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

The Mercedes driver was reported to police as a possible drink-driver on July 13, prosecutor Elizabeth Blacklock said.

Officers found Sorokin's car parked on the side of the A40 near Whitchurch, but as they pulled up to approach him, he started moving, driving along the road at about 10 miles an hour.

They put their lights and sirens on in an attempt to get him to pull over, but Sorokin kept going before eventually coming to a stop some time later.

Sorokin was asked to carry out a roadside breath test, which returned a positive result, and was taken into custody, where an evidential test revealed he had 84 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Chris Read, for Sorokin, of Filton Avenue, Bristol, said the 37-year-old had travelled from Bristol to Herefordshire that day to meet a woman.

"He spent quite some time waiting for this meeting to take place and he drank beer while he was waiting," Mr Read said.

"Suffice to say the meeting was not a success and he left with the intention of travelling home.

"He stopped at the Wilton Garage at Ross and the staff there thought he had been drinking and called police. He had only travelled a relatively short distance to the Whitchurch interchange and parked up. He had bought alcohol in the garage and says he had drunk some of that while stopped at Whitchurch.

"When police arrived, he headed back towards Ross and they followed him with their lights and sirens on. There were some difficulties with language, but the procedures were complied with."

Self-employed builder Sorokin, who has a previous drink-driving conviction, was disqualified from driving for 40 months and fined £480. He must also pay costs of £135 and a £48 victim surcharge.