A CRASH driver who got behind the wheel after a row with his girlfriend has been banned from the roads.
Joshua Stephen Howells entered guilty pleas to charges of drink-driving and driving without a licence or insurance when he appeared before magistrates in Hereford in March.
Police were called to Ross-on-Wye's High Street after a Peugeot 206 was crashed into a pole on February 14, prosecutor Melanie Winterflood said.
CCTV footage showed Howells getting out of the driver's side of the car and inspecting the damage before walking away.
He then returned with another person, moved the car into a parking bay, and left.
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A search found Howells still with the person he had been seen with on CCTV, and he was arrested and taken to Hereford police station, where an evidential breath test revealed he had 71 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, twice the legal limit of 35.
He was also found to only hold an expired provisional driving licence, the court heard.
George Cousins, for Howells, said that the 27-year-old had been in Ross-on-Wye with his girlfriend when the pair had a falling out.
"He jumped in his car and drove," Mr Cousins said.
Howells, of Duke Street in Kington, was fined a total of £360 and disqualified from driving for 18 months.
He was also ordered to pay prosecution costs of £135 and a £144 victim surcharge.
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