A MAN who first learned of his driving convictions when his case appeared in the Falmouth Packet, returned to court yesterday.

Albert George Phillips, aged 63, had been sentenced by magistrates in his absence on January 29, after he crashed a Peugeot in Gweek last summer.

Phillips, of Hens-Horn Court, Helston, had been unaware of his sentence until a friend had pointed it out in our newspaper.

Yesterday he made a statutory declaration to the court as evidence that he had been unaware of the first hearing, because he had changed address shortly after the offences had been committed.

Once his declaration was accepted by magistrates, the case was heard again, this time with Phillips present.

He pleaded guilty to three offences - driving without due care and attention, driving with no insurance or MoT.

Court clerk Paul Miles outlined the details of the case, in which Phillips had crashed into two parked cars in Chapel Hill around midnight on July 27.

Police were called to the scene and found the defendant sat by the roadside. The car did not have any tax or registered keeper, besides the other offences.

Defending himself, Phillips said that there had been "various circumstances" which led to the accident.

"I fell asleep at the wheel. I had played a gig as a drummer for a band - it was a question of doing it or letting people down. I uncharacteristically went to sleep and that was that."

He added that he was planning to put the car through its MoT but had needed to fix the hooter before he did so.

A friend of Phillips, who has known him for more than 50 years, also spoke on his behalf in court.

She explained that Phillips had suffered a "mental breakdown" following the death of his brother, with whom he had been living at Crasken Farm. She described Phillips as a "gigging drummer and a jobbing carpenter" who had been self-employed for most of his life.

Following his brother's death he had become homeless last summer, having moved from the farm shortly after the offences had taken place. He has been signed off work with stress since September and has recently moved into sheltered accommodation.

After retiring to consider Phillips' sentence, magistrates banned him from driving for nine months. He already had six points on his licence for driving with defective tyres in 2015.

He was fined £120 and ordered to pay £85 costs and £30 victim surcharge. He was also ordered to pay a total of £450 compensation to the owners of the two cars which he damaged.