A WARSASH milkman carried out his early morning round while almost twice the drink-drive limit.

After a drinking session the previous night, Polish Wieslaw Szubryt, who can hardly speak English, admitted getting behind the wheel of his Ford Transit milk float on the morning of May 2.

Fareham magistrates heard how Szubryt, 38, was arrested at Saxon Close, Warsash, after the police were called out to deal with an argument he was having with a customer around 7am.

When officers approached Szubryt, of Wimpson Lane, Millbrook, Southampton, they smelt alcohol on his breath, according to prosecuting solicitor Karen Schmidt.

She told the court: "The police could smell intoxicants on the defendant's breath, saw that he was dressed in a Unigate uniform and saw the Ford Transit milk float parked on the road and breathalysed him."

Speaking through an interpreter Szubryt said he had had a drink the night before going on his morning round and had not realised any alcohol was still left in his system.

He said: "I had no idea that when I set out on the round I would still have alcohol in my blood."

When brethalysed he gave a reading of 66mg of alcohol in 100mg of breath - almost twice the legal limit.

Szubryt, who has been in the country for two years and does not have a British driving licence, added he could no longer work for Unigate as a result of the incident.

He was disqualified for 18 months and ordered to pay £220 fine for admitting the drink driving offence.

Dairy Crest, which owns Unigate, has launched an inquiry following the case.

A company spokeswoman said: "Dairy Crest operates a stringent recruitment and selection process and an investigation is underway to discover if this was in some way compromised."