A teenage driver suffocated in a muddy pool when he overturned his car and landed in a ditch, an inquest heard yesterday.

Kitchen hand Gary Allen, 18, got behind the wheel after a row with his girlfriend over arriving home late from a leaving party at 3am.

He had drunk at least five pints and taken cannabis before losing control of the Hyundai Pony, in Darlington Back Lane at Stockton.

The teenager, who had to be cut out of the wreckage by firefighters, died of asphyxia from mud in the mouth, a pathologist told the hearing in Middlesbrough.

PC Stuart Fawcett said Gary had passed his driving test only eight weeks before the tragedy, in the early hours of January 20.

The Accident Investigation Unit officer said: "A combination of inexperience with the alcohol and drugs would have affected his ability to control the car."

Donna Jackson, of Kitchener Street, Stockton, said that her boyfriend promised he would be back by midnight and they fell out when he eventually returned three hours late.

Coroner Michael Sheffield recorded a verdict of accidental death on Gary, of Marske Lane, Stockton, and said that his mind may not have been on his driving.

His younger brother, Anthony, of Crescent Avenue, Billingham, who had been to the party with him, escaped without serious injury.