A MOTORIST stopped in West Somerset more than one-and-a-half times over the legal limit of alcohol has been banned from driving for nearly two years.

Samuel Allan, aged 37, of Kings Langley, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty in Taunton Magistrates Court on Friday (May 1) to drink-driving his Peugeot van.

It happened on April 3 near chalets on Dunster Beach, when Allan was found to have 92 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the limit being 35.

He was disqualified for 23 months and ordered to complete 70 hours of unpaid community work under probation service supervision.

Allan was ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £114 victim fund surcharge and told his ban would be reduced by 23 weeks if he completed a drink-driver rehabilitation course.