HAIRDRESSER Mauro Ceraldi panicked when he learned his pregnant girlfriend had been involved in a car crash, a court was told.

Blackburn magistrates heard that he went to her assistance without giving a thought to the home-made wine and Irish Coffee he had been drinking earlier in the day.

And as he returned from his mercy-mission. Ceraldi was stopped and failed a breathalyser.

Ceraldi, 37, of Radford Street, Darwen, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol.

He was fined £135 with £100 costs and banned from driving for 18 months.

Ceraldi, who gave a reading of 61 against the legal limit of 35, agreed to be referred to the drink-drive rehabilitation programme which, if completed successfully, could reduce his ban by up to 25 per cent.