A pub-goer told police his drink had been spiked after he drove his car the wrong way along the A66 dual carriageway - for four miles.

Lee Coleman, 31, caused other drivers to do emergency stops and steer onto the verge before police were finally able to block in his Proton car as it drove the wrong way around a roundabout.

Coleman, an unemployed taxi driver, said he had walked home from his local pub and could remember later curling up on the sofa at home.

The next thing he knew was when he woke up in the police station, his lawyer told Teesside Crown Court yesterday.

The trial was told Coleman had no reason to be driving from his home towards Darlington at 3am when he was stopped.

His barrister, Stephen Constantine, told the hearing: "The only conclusion he could have was that someone had spiked his drink.

"Quite simply, he cannot explain his actions of that night."

Louise Reevell, prosecuting, said that limousine driver Jason O'Marr contacted the police after Coleman's car passed him on the northbound carriageway of the A19, near Yarm, on January 29 - going the wrong way.

Ten minutes later, an officer in an unmarked police car saw the car approaching Long Newton and switched on his front flashing blue lights and siren.

Coleman continued to drive at between 20mph to 40mph in the 70mph zone and at times almost slowed to a halt, but then speeded up, the court was told.

As the officer followed, one car was forced to brake violently and swerved onto the verge, and a coach also had to brake sharply and bumped its nearside wheel up onto the kerb.

At the Darlington interchange, Coleman went the wrong way around the roundabout where the police car was able to block his path.

Coleman later gave a urine sample with a reading of 188 millilitres of alcohol in 100 millilitres of urine. The limit is 107.

Judge George Moorhouse told him: "You are very lucky that no-one was injured in a serious accident and no one suffered serious, if not fatal injuries."

Coleman, of Bedford Street, Stockton, was given a nine- month jail sentence suspended for two years with supervision, 100 hours unpaid work, disqualified from driving for two years and fined £350 after he pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and excess alcohol. The ban was reduced to 18 months because he had already served an interim ban imposed by Teesside magistrates.