A disqualified driver was found slumped over the steering wheel at more than twice the drink-drive limit.

Police found Wayne Doy in his car in Bridge Street, Downham Market, at 2am on October 2.

Officers had to wake him by banging on the window.

“They noted that his speech was slurred and he was drunk,” said prosecutor Jacqui Dankyi.

“He did say that he’d had three to four pints.”

Doy, 47, was arrested after failing a roadside breath test.

He later blew 87 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit being 35.

Doy of Wretton Road, Stoke Ferry, pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, drink-driving and having no insurance.

The offence happened while he was half way through a 17-month driving ban.

In mitigation, solicitor George Sorrell said it was his client’s openness in interview that had led to the drink-driving charge, as Doy had been arrested for the lesser charge of being in charge of a vehicle while unfit.

“[Police] asked him to give an account and in a spirit of honesty and frankness he said he’d been to the pub, then went home and was going to the shop when he had second thoughts and stopped," he said.

“It’s right that he should be honest and frank and it’s right that police should know what he should be charged with because it’s a very serious matter.

“This is a second conviction [for drink-driving]. It all rather compounds and becomes very serious.

“A high reading for alcohol coupled with driving while disqualified.”

Magistrates banned Doy from driving for three years.

He was given a higher level fine instead of a community order with unpaid work hours because he is currently signed off sick.

Doy was fined £200 and ordered to pay £84 in costs and victim surcharge.

He was not offered the chance to do the drink-driving rehabilitation course, which could have reduced the length of his ban.

There was no separate penalty for the insurance offence.