A DRINK-driver said he was “really stupid” after he was banned from driving for three years because he was caught twice in 10 years.

Duncan Smith, aged 46, of Tapenhall Road, Fernhill Heath, near Worcester, admitted driving with excess alcohol when he appeared before a deputy district judge at Worcester Magistrates Court yesterday.

He has been caught for the second time in a decade meaning he faced a longer ban.

Smith was followed by po-lice as he drove his Ford Es-cort from County Hall, along the A4440 and onto Newtown Road and Woodgreen Drive, in Warndon Villages, Worc-ester, on October 19, before they stopped him and asked him to pull over.

Adrian Jones, prosecuting, said Smith failed the roadside breath test while a test at the station revealed 60mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

In 1998, he was convicted of being in charge of a motor vehicle after having consumed excess alcohol.

Deputy district judge Peter King had to consider a longer ban because Smith had also been convicted of driving with excess alcohol in 2009.

Smith, who represented himself, said: “I’m just really stupid that I did it.

“It was the first drink I have had in 18 months and I get pulled over.”

He said he had been labouring for a builder but now expected that he would lose his job.

“I don’t think he will pick me up,” he said. “I won’t be able to work. I don’t know what I’m going to do now.”

Smith was fined £150, ord-ered to pay a £20 victim surcharge and costs of £45. He was banned from driving for three years.

Smith, who has already completed a drink-drive course once, was offered the opportunity to do it again which would reduce the ban by 25 per cent.