A 43-YEAR-OLD man has been banned from the road for 16 months after he was stopped for drink-driving the day after his birthday.

Kevin Duffy pleaded guilty to drink-driving on December 12 when he appeared at Darlington Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Duffy, of Farm Lane, Ingleby Barwick, was arrested after a collision in Park Lane, Darlington, in which his car and another were written off.

He had had three pints after work before he set off to drive home. He was found to have 68 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit is 35mg.

Jane Scott, mitigating, said he would not normally have been so far over the limit, except he had been drinking the night before to celebrate his birthday.

She added that her client had been suffering from depression because of long hours at work, which had forced him to decide to resign.

Duffy was also fined £500 and ordered to pay £43 costs.