After drinking three pints of beer while out with friends, a farm worker from St Martin did not think he was over the limit when he drove his car.

But when he was involved in an accident the police caught up with him and he was found to have 51 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, 16 points over the limit.

Kai Smith, aged 21, of Greenhill Terrace, St Martin, told the officers who arrived at the scene that he was concerned about his dog in the car.

The officers at first did not find the dog but found some cannabis instead, later tracking the animal to the car’s boot.

At Truro’s magistrates’ court Smith pleaded guilty to drink-driving and possessing cannabis.

Barry Hilliard, mitigating, said his client was ashamed to be in court. He worked on a farm 50 to 60 hours a week and, in connection with that work, he had been the youngest person in Cornwall to obtain a bus licence, which was needed to drive foreign workers about the farm. It was £200 of his own money which he had invested and would now lose when his licence was taken away.

Smith was fined £400, ordered to pay £110 costs and surcharge and banned from driving for 15 months.