HAMPSHIRE TV presenter Alistair Stewart was today banned from the roads for 30 months and fined £2,000 for drink-driving.

Stewart, 50, of Wood Lane, Bramdean, near Winchester, today pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol on June 19 in the road where he lives.

Basingstoke magistrates were told that Stewart crashed his Mercedes into a hedge while more than three times the legal limit.

The reading was 112 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath, the limit being 35.

A member of the public saw the crash and called the police. Shortly afterwards, officers went to Stewart's home and arrested him. He spent the night at North Walls police station in Winchester.

The court heard today that Stewart has lost his job presenting Police Camera Action, the hit TV show that highlights bad driving.

Rupert Pardoe, mitigating, said: "The consequences have already been profound. The producers of Police Camera Action no longer feel able to continue with this role."

Sentencing, magistrate Julia Etheridge said: "You committed a horrendous act of drink-driving. You of all people should realise the potential consequences and we have considered a custodial sentence."

Stewart left court accompanied by family and friends. He made no comment as he was driven away in a BMW. Stewart currently presents London Tonight, a nightly news programme screened on ITV in the capital. He started his career with Southern Television in Southampton.

Previously, he was deputy president of the National Union of Students in the mid-1970s before breaking into TV.

Within four years he landed the job of industrial correspondent at ITN. He has been one of the major figures of British TV and co-anchored ITN general election coverage from 1987 to 1997.

The father-of-four is married to Sally, a former TV production assistant, and is vice patron of the Rose Road Association, the Southampton charity for disabled children.

Among the friends who accompanied him in court was former Southern TV newsreader Khaled Aziz.

Winchester MP Mark Oaten is a neighbour of Stewart.

He said: "I know Alistair very well. He is a good friend who does a great deal in the community and I know he is mortified by what has taken place. We have spoken about it and he is very upset."