A drunk driver crashed into another car in Swindon while more than three times the legal alcohol limit.

Vincent Hicko-Nicko , of Zakopane Road in Haydon Wick, appeared in the dock at Swindon Magistrates Court on Monday and pleaded guilty to one charge of drink driving and one charge of failing to stop after a road accident.

The 44-year-old carer crashed into a parked Ford Transit van on Worsley Road at around 10.20pm on Saturday, May 11 and was later stopped by police on Wootton Bassett Road.

Keith Ballinger, prosecuting, told the court that officers were called to the scene of the crash after a witness raised concerns about the driver being drunk.

When officers arrived at the scene, the Toyota had left the area, but other officers on Tewkesbury Way noticed the defendant's damaged vehicle and pulled him over.

Mr Ballinger added: "The defendant was slurring his words and struggled to string a sentence together."

He was breathalysed, arrested, then breathalysed again at the station, which gave a lower reading of 125 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath.

The legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol per 100ml of breath, which means that Hicko-Nicko was three-and-a-half times the maximum allowed intake when his breath was tested at the station.

Terry McCarthy, defending, said: "He drank the previous day, felt well and fit enough to drive, and went to see a friend, then there was an accident.

"He works as a carer and has been in the UK for nine months from Zimbabwe.

"He's in a state of shock from being arrested and finding out the amount of trouble he is in."

A representative from the probation service added: "He is embarrassed to find himself in this situation. This process has been a wake-up call for him."

Judge Joanna Dickinson planned to give the driver a community order with an alcohol treatment requirement, but this requirement has to be approved by him first.

The probation representative mentioned that Hicko-Nicko had denied the need for such a requirement.

The judge was surprised to hear that and was particularly concerned by the fact that he had thought himself fit to drive while so much alcohol was still in his system.

Mr McCarthy briefly consulted with his client and then confirmed that an alcohol treatment requirement was now acceptable.

Sentencing has been adjourned to June 4 and, in the meantime, Hicko-Nicko has been released on bail with an interim driving ban.