POLICE were alerted when forestry worker Ben Dickson was seen driving in the early hours without lights and with no tyre on one wheel, a court heard yesterday.

Concerned witnesses saw Dickson's red Vauxhall Astra hit a kerb on the outskirts of Ripon and deflate a tyre, prosecutor Nicholas Ralph told Harrogate magistrates.

But it did not stop Dickson, 19, who went on his way as the tyre began to disintegrate and ended up driving on the wheel rim in Whitcliffe Lane.

He twice mounted kerbs, on one occasion crossing the footpath in Harrogate Road before hitting a brick wall in Low Skellgate.

Dickson, of The Close, Studley Roger, near Ripon pleaded guilty to drink-driving and was fined £180 with costs of £80 and banned from the roads for 18 months. He was fined £100 after admitting careless driving and a dangerous driving charge was dropped.