A 23-YEAR-OLD motorist and his passengers escaped injury when their vehicle knocked down a tree and a lamp-post before skidding along the road on its roof.

Blackburn magistrates heard that Justin Swingler could not remember what had happened during the early-morning incident on the road between Whalley and Barrow.

Swingler, 23, of Garstang Road, Chipping, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and without due care and attention. He was fined £300 with £45 costs and disqualified from driving for 18 months.

Swingler, who gave a reading of 60 against the legal limit of 35, agreed to be referred to the drink-drive rehabilitation programme which, if completed successfully, would reduce his ban by up to 25 per cent.

Clare Knight, defending, said the inevitable ban could cost Swingler his job at Gisburn auction. She said his boss had said he would give it two weeks and if things didn't work out Swingler would be made redundant.