A motorist who lost control of his car and crashed into the wall of a house was twice over the limit a court heard this week.

Sixty-nine-year-old David Richard Mathias, of Whitehill, Cresselly, appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to driving his Citroen C3 vehicle on the A478 Templeton after exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol.

Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that at around 6 pm on November 13, the defendant drove into the wall of a property, causing considerable damage to the car, and minor damage to the wall.

“He admitted to the police officer at the scene that he’d been drinking.

“Mr. Mathias was twice over the limit, with a reading of 67 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath given.

“The aggravating feature is that the alcohol clearly affected his ability to drive, as he lost control of the vehicle and collided with a wall,” added Mr. Pritchard-Jones.

The court heard that Mr. Mathias had a previous conviction for drink-driving in 2016.

“Mr. Mathias can’t give a reasonable account of why he swerved, it all happened so fast. He thinks he was trying to avoid another car,” said defence solicitor Jonathan Webb.

“He’d consumed his last drink some time before, and though he would be ok to drive, but wasn’t.”

Magistrates handed Mr. Mathias a 36 month driving disqualification with the chairman of the bench David Simpson telling the defendant: “You’ve obviously been caught before and you know you shouldn’t be doing this. This is a very serious charge.”

Mr. Mathias was also fined £170 for the offence and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and a £32 victim surcharge.