A PARTY-GOER who was seen swerving across the road and hitting another car has been banned from the roads.

Irimia Scheianua entered a guilty plea when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford.

Scheianua had been at a friend's birthday party in Bobblestock, where he had drunk five or six beers on September 18, prosecutor Ralph Robyns Landricombe said,

The court heard he had his last drink at around 6.30pm and left some two hours later.

But as he drove home along Westfaling Street in Hereford, he noticed a car behind him flashing its lights and pulled over.

"The driver of the car behind asked if he had been drinking and when he said yes, they called the police," Mr Robyns Landricombe said.

"Police arrived at about 9pm and he said yes when they asked if he had been drinking alcohol. The witness said they had seen his car swerving across the road down Westfaling Street to a point where he hit the wing mirror of a stationary car before carrying on driving."

Scheianua was arrested after failing a roadside breath test, and an evidential test in custody revealed he had 71 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Officers returned to Westfaling Street the next day, where they found Scheianua's car with damage to the wing mirror, but no damage was found to other cars in the area.

In interview, Scheianua said he could not remember the damage and had not seen it when he got into the car to drive it home.

He told officers he would have rated himself 'six out of ten' for being drunk.

Philip Cornell, for Scheianua, said the 27-year-old was ashamed by what he had done.

"He does not know why he had the sudden impulse to leave the party, but he just wanted to go home," he said.

"He puts that down to the drink and is very aware now of the danger drink poses not just to himself but to others."

Scheianua, of Muir Close, Hereford, was disqualified from driving for 20 months and fined £420. He must also pay costs of £135 and a £42 victim surcharge.