A man was arrested after he was found slumped in his car and three times over the drink drive limit, a court has heard.

Mark Spooner, 45, of Mount Pleasant, Walsingham, appeared in King’s Lynn magistrates’ court on Monday, January 8 where he pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle whilst above the drink drive limit.

The court heard how on December 4 of last year, at around 4.50pm, a member of the public called police after they found Spooner asleep and slumped in a car in Fulmodeston near Fakenham.

Nicola Pope, prosecuting, said the defendant was arrested and underwent a breath test, of which the lowest reading came back as 107mcg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Ms Pope added: “He was interviewed and he confirmed that he had driven the vehicle and had drank that morning. “He could not remember what time he had started and or what time he had finished.

“He confirmed the car had stopped at the junction where he was found by police.”

Ms Pope said Spooner had no previous convictions. Ruth Johnson, mitigating for Spooner, said: “He has a family history of depression and alcoholism and unfortunately he has inherited some of those traits.”

But despite this, Ms Johnson said Spooner was receiving help from charity Julian Support and had recently been referred to the Norfolk Recovery Partnership by his GP.

“He has done the right thing and has gone straight to them,” Ms Johnson added. “He is living on his savings and is going to try and get back into carpentry.

“He was starting to seem really uplifted when we spoke about that this morning, he feels there is a some light at the end of the tunnel now.”

After Spooner discussed his circumstances with the probation team, the chairman of the bench handed the defendant a medium level community order for 12 months.

He was ordered to undergo 100 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £85 court costs and £85 victim surcharge. He was also disqualified from driving for 26 months.