A DRIVER was so drunk he could not stand up when police arrested him after crashing his car.

Robert Hutchinson was five times over the drink-drive limit when he was seen driving his Nissan Almera erratically on the A281 towards Horsham and crashing head on into a Ford Ka heading towards Mannings Heath.

The Ford span and a 42-year-old woman from Plummers Plain, suffered slight injuries. Hutchinson was not injured but his Nissan ended up in bushes in the incident at 5.45pm on Friday, January 30.

Police CCTV footage recorded inside Worthing custody centre shows him wobbling on his feet and falling off his chair and into a wall while he waited to be breathalysed.

He was so drunk an officer had to help him to his feet and hold him up to stop him falling down again. The 59-year-old had 169 microgrammes of alcohol in100 millitres of breath – which is almost five times the legal limit of 35 microgrammes – telling the police he had spent the afternoon at home drinking before going shopping for food.

He was driving without a licence and had already served a ban for drink-driving in 2009.

Hutchinson, of Fir Tree Close, Plummers Plain, pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving without a licence and driving without insurance when he appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court.

He was jailed for 18 weeks, banned from driving for five years, told to do 300 hours of community service, and ordered to pay £85 costs and an £80 victim surcharge.

Chief Inspector Phil Nicholas, from Surrey and Sussex roads policing unit, said: "The footage shows just how drunk Hutchinson was, yet he thought it was acceptable for him to drive in that condition. It is vital that we get people who think that it's ok to drink and drive off the roads.

"We need the public's help to tell us whenever they see someone who could be drink-driving so that we can act before someone is seriously hurt or even killed."