FORMER Burnley star Leighton James has admitted drink driving and without insurance.

He was banned from driving for 16 months when he appeared at court yesterday.

James told a police officer who stopped him that he had been drowning his sorrows after the death of his father.

The 54-year-old, a regular commentator on BBC Wales TV and radio sports programmes, was also fined £575.

James was stopped in his Vauxhall Astra last month after a Saturday night out at a rugby club a few miles from his home in Grove Road, Gorseinon.

Prosecutor Julie Sullivan said the officer who spoke to James at 12.25 am on May 27 noticed his speech was slurred and that his breath smelled of "intoxicants".

A test showed his breath to contain 56 micrograms of alcohol, around one-and-a- half times the 35 microgram limit.

Asked by the officer if he had been drinking, the former Wales winger replied, "Yes, I'm sorry but my father has just died."

At Swansea Magistrates' Court yesterday, James formally pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and driving without insurance. As well as being given the 16-month driving ban he was also fined £350 for driving with excess alcohol, £150 for having no insurance, £60 court costs and the routine £15 victim surcharge introduced to magistrates' courts in April.

Charges of driving without a licence and with no MOT certificate were dropped after he handed in the appropriate documents.

His solicitor Hugh Davies said that James co-operated with police and frankly admitted being over the limit after leaving a social function in his car.

A former winger, James played for Wales 54 times, winning his first cap in 1971 and going on to score 10 goals for his country.

He played 181 games for Burnley, scoring 44 goals, but was sold to Derby County in a record £310,000 deal in 1975.

James returned to Burnley in 1978 for a £165,000 fee which remained a record at Turf Moor until 1994.

He was there for less than two years before joining Swansea.

However, James again signed for Burnley in July 1986 and remained for three years, later taking on coaching duties.

Now a popular TV and radio pundit, he also works as a crossing patrol officer at Penyrheol Primary School in Gorseinon.