A SAMBUCA-slamming drink driver who was still five-times the limit more than three hours after staggering out of a Port pub has been told he's lucky he didn't kill someone.

Thomas Thruel was facing the prospect of prison for clambering behind the wheel of his £250 van after downing shot after shot of the 40 per cent proof liqueur as well as pints of lager.

Footage played to Greenock Sheriff Court shows Thruel throwing back a number of shots in quick succession within the Sutherland Bar in Port Glasgow, and guzzling down beer.

Sheriff Derek Hamilton told the 26-year-old: "This is an extremely high alcohol reading but it is not just the reading which concerns me, it is the manner of the whole thing.

"The CCTV shows you knocking back the drink, knocking back the shots and then you go out and drive.

"It is simply good fortune that you didn't cause mayhem."

A camera outside the premises showed Thruel staggering and remonstrating with another man before being ushered away by a woman.

He is then seen to weave along Princes Street, unable to stay on the pavement, and appearing to use the double yellow lines on the road as a guide.

Thruel was found to have 118 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath — putting him at 5.3 times the legal limit of 22mcg.

The footage showed the state he was was in at 11.30pm on September 16 and 12.30am on September 17 last year, prior to eventually being breathalysed at 3.52am.

Thruel's not guilty pleas to charges of dangerous driving within a car park, driving at excessive speed, turning excessively sharply, colliding with a sign and failing to co-operate with a preliminary breath test were accepted by the Crown.

Prosecutor David Glancy said: "The accused's driving came to the attention of the residents of houses overlooking streets in the centre of Port Glasgow."

Defence lawyer Aidan Gallagher told a sentencing hearing: "He fully accepts that he allowed himself to get into that state and then made matters worse by going out and driving the vehicle.

"He has a work history but is not currently working.

"He fully appreciates the position that he's placed himself in, but maybe that given his work history and limited record your Lordship could put him to work as a direct alternative to custody.

"He appreciates that is he were to involve himself in this type of offending in future that this type of disposal would be unlikely to be available to him."

Sheriff Hamilton banned Thruel, of Islay Avenue, from driving for 32 months and told him it would have been 36 months were it not for due his guilty plea.

He has also been ordered to complete 180 hours of unpaid work, reduced from 200 hours, and he will be under supervision for 12 months.