SHOW pony enthusiast Joseph Horner, whose wife is expecting their sixth child, was jailed yesterday after being found at the wheel of a 7.5-tonne horsebox following a drinking binge.

District Judge Roy Anderson, sitting at Harrogate Magistrates' Court, heard how a defective brake light led to police stopping the box as it travelled along Water Skellgate, in Ripon, on Monday night.

Sarah Tyrer, prosecuting, said a breath test showed Horner, 34, was more than twice the drink-drive limit and checks revealed he was driving in defiance of a four-year ban.

When Horner, of Brett Street, Bridlington, pleaded guilty to drink-driving, breaching the ban and not having insurance his solicitor Andrew Tinning said prison would devastate the family.

It would leave Horner's seven-months-pregnant wife to care for five children, aged between three and ten, and run the couple's show pony business single-handed.

Mr Tinning said the couple had been to Pateley Bridge but when they reached Ripon on their way back they had a row.

Mrs Horner and the children continued their journey by taxi while Horner went on a drinking binge, intending to sleep in the horsebox.

A landowner had refused permission to park and he had been on his way to find somewhere else to spend the night when he was stopped.

Judge Anderson told Horner he had an appalling driving record - it was his sixth conviction for driving while disqualified and his fifth for drink-driving - and displayed utter contempt for court orders as well as for the safety of other road users.

Horner was jailed for four months and banned from the roads for three years.