A 25-YEAR-old man crashed into the back of a parked taxi after drinking eight or nine pints of lager on a Sunday afternoon.

Blackburn magistrates heard that when police eventually caught up with Mark John Selway he gave a breathalyser reading four times the legal drink driving limit.

Selway, of Newlands Avenue, Clitheroe, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and driving without due care and attention.

He denied to failing to stop after an accident and that charge was dismissed after the prosecution offered no evidence.

Selway was fined £800 for the excess alcohol offence and disqualified from driving for three years. He was fined a further £150 for driving without due care and ordered to pay £55 costs.

Selway agreed to be referred to the drink drivers rehabilitation programme which, if completed successfully, could reduce his disqualification by nine months.

Tom Snape, prosecuting, said the taxi had parked outside the Horse Shoe pub on Bawdlands to collect a fare. The driver looked in his mirror and saw a Vauxhall Cavalier coming towards his vehicle. As he looked the car collided with his rear bumper before continuing for about 50 yards before stopping.

The taxi driver pulled up behind the other vehicle and immediately recognised Selway who had been a passenger on numerous occasions. Selway asked him not to phone the police before driving off. The taxi driver took police to Selway's home address and a few minutes later Selway arrived in his car.

Adrian Williams, defending, said Selway had no previous convictions and was in a state of panic over his appearance in court and the possible outcome.

He said Selway had lost his job about 10 months previously and at the same time he and his long-term girlfriend, who he had planned to marry, split up.

"These events had a profound effect on him," said Mr Williams. "He has now developed extreme anxiety and depression and on the day of the offence he had been drinking on his own in the town centre. He had intended to leave the car in town and can give no good reason for getting into the car at all."

Mr Williams said that Selway had got a job six weeks earlier and had made significant progress in beating the alcohol problem he had developed.