A MAN whose business collapse and mounting debts led to a second drink-drive offence in four years escaped a jail sentence yesterday.

Charles Waring, who was said to owe the Child Support Agency £32,000, was more than three-and-a-half times the alcohol limit when police attended an accident in Otley Road, Harrogate, Stephanie Brown, prosecuting, told the town's magistrates.

Waring, 40, of St Mary's Walk, Harrogate, pleaded guilty to driving with a 127-milligramme alcohol level.

Presiding magistrate Mary Colquhoun told Waring that she had seriously considered sending him to prison.

Instead, she gave him a 100-hour community punishment order and a one-year community rehabilitation order.

She banned him from the roads for three years and ordered payment of £70 costs.