A DRIVER was spotted speeding down a city centre road with his "extremely drunk" wife's shoeless feet sticking out of the open rear door.

Not only was the BMW being driven with the door wide open, but the officer estimated that it was also breaking the 40mph speed limit as it approached the A691 Framwelgate Peth, towards Durham city centre.

Durham Crown Court heard the officer drove onto the road to block the BMW as it reached the Gates roundabout.

Driver Ali Mahmoud Kadir pulled over and the officer saw that the rear passenger, lying across the back seat with her legs hanging out of the car, was his highly intoxicated partner.

Penny Bottomley, prosecuting, said Kadir accepted that a back door had been open while he was driving.

The pizza delivery driver said he had gone to collect his partner from a wedding party at Bowburn Hall Hotel, at 12.30am, on August 24.

But, on the return journey he had to stop at a roundabout, under the railway viaduct, in the centre of Durham, to get her out of the front passenger seat and assist her into the rear seat.

He then drove onto the A691 and did a u-turn near the entrance to the former DLI Museum, to head back down Framwelgate Peth, where, at some point the door must have come open, as was observed by the officer.

Kadir, 37, of High Street, Willington, admitted a charge of dangerous driving.

The court heard it was his first conviction or caution.

Matthew Crowe, mitigating, said while trying to deal with his drunken partner the defendant was attempting to drive home.

“It’s accepted the door had been opened somewhat earlier than when the officer saw it and he should have stopped to deal with it earlier.”

Judge Jonathan Carroll said it appeared the door was opened by the defendant’s “extremely drunk” wife.

He said it was far from the typical dangerous driving case and, given the circumstances, he could impose an 18-month community order, with ten probation-supervised activity days and 80-hours’ unpaid work.

Judge Carroll added that the short distance over which it took place amounted to “special reasons” not to impose the usually automatic driving ban on Kadir, who was given six penalty points on his licence.