A DRUNK driver nearly EIGHT-TIMES the booze limit downed vodka during a 14-mile journey to Port Glasgow before crashing his car and blacking out.

Ryan Mallon staggered up to the silver-coloured Ford C-Max and clambered inside — then poured the spirit into a bottle of juice before setting off.

He'd had a drinking session at his girlfriend's house in Paisley the night before which lasted into the early hours of the morning.

Mallon, 28, of Kelly Street in Greenock, produced an alcohol reading of 169mcg in 100ml of breath — putting him at 7.7-times the legal limit of 22mcg.

He has been spared prison over the pre-Christmas offence.

The sheriff court heard how he drank the vodka and juice as he drove from his partner's home to his father's house.

He was found unconscious in the car after colliding with a barrier on the Port's Dubbs Road with such force that the vehicle's airbags deployed.

Police arrived to find him walking away from the car.

Mallon committed the offence shortly after midday on December 5 last year.

He had set out on a walk with his girlfriend to exercise dogs but she told him to go back to her house because he was so unsteady on his feet.

Mallon then decided to drive back to Inverclyde.

His lawyer, Aidan Gallagher, said: "It was a combination of the morning after the night before and then drinking more.

"It was an act of gross stupidity and it is only through good fortune that neither he, or anyone else, came to harm.

Sheriff Michael Higgins banned Mallon from the roads for 32 months and ordered him to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work.

Mallon must also undergo programmes of alcohol treatment and supervision in the community for 18 months.

The sentence has been imposed as a direct alternative to custody.