A MAN who crashed his car on the M5 while out for birthday drinks has been spared a harsher sentence because he is due to return home to Ukraine.

Nikolai Iacobciuc appeared before magistrates in Worcester where he admitted driving while over the legal alcohol limit on the M5 near Droitwich.

The 33 year-old, who lives in Cheltenham, had been out with a friend to celebrate his birthday but decided to drive home.

Prosecutor Ralph Robyns-Landricombe told the court: “At 1.45am, officers on mobile patrol on the M5 could see a car parked on the junction 5 sliproad, one half on the verge, facing the wrong way.

“The front off-side was damaged and officers talked to the two men in the car - the defendant identifying himself as the driver.”

The officers could smell alcohol and breathalysed Iacobciuc, whose reading came back as 110 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

A witness who had been following Iacobciuc said the car was travelling normally before making a late turn at the junction, hitting the roadside barrier and causing the car to spin into the sliproad.

Mark Lister, representing Iacobciuc, told the court he had recently moved to Britain with his wife. He said: “He came to this country a few months ago with his wife looking for employment. Following this incident his wife has since returned to Ukraine.

“He wishes to return as well and it would have been very easy for him simply to have gone back and sought to evade justice but he has chosen not to.

“It is doubtful he will have any means to return (to the UK) so once he is gone, the likelihood is he will never return.”

Mr Lister added Iacobciuc is living with a friend and does not have a job, meaning he only had limited means to pay a fine.

Jane Laverick, chairman of the magistrates, fined Iacobciuc £200, ordered him to pay costs of £50 and a victim surcharge of £32.

He was also banned from driving for 24 months.