WAKING up with a hangover, drink-driver Lee Ingram had consumed a pint as the hair of the dog just minutes before he crashed into a fence. Police called to West Drive Gardens in Soham around 8am on a Sunday morning found a blue panel van buried into a s

WAKING up with a hangover, drink-driver Lee Ingram had consumed a pint as "the hair of the dog" just minutes before he crashed into a fence.

Police called to West Drive Gardens in Soham around 8am on a Sunday morning found a blue panel van buried into a six-foot high garden fence.

"Ingram was at the side of the vehicle," prosecutor Matthew Bradbury told Ely magistrates on Thursday.

"He said the van had gone up on two wheels when he lost control. He smelled of intoxicating liquor, and said he had drunk a pint just half an hour earlier."

After failing a breathalyser test, Ingram told police: "I was drinking last night and only woke up an hour ago. I had a hangover, so had another pint, the hair of the dog and all that."

Just after 9am, Ingram gave a breath test reading of 50 mcgs of alcohol in 100 mls of breath, when the legal limit is 35 mcgs.

Ingram, 27, of Eldith Avenue, Fordham, represented himself in court, and said: "I know I should not have done it, I am sorry."

He was banned from driving for 12 months, and must pay a fine of £175, another £60 in costs, and a £15 surcharge.