A SLEEPWALKING doctor crashed his car while nearly four times the drink-drive limit.

GP Donald Clegg, who was driving still wearing his dressing gown and slippers, was banned from driving for a year when he appeared before Bury magistrates on Tuesday.

The 59-year-old pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol and driving without due care and attention.

Mr Gwyn Lewis, defending, said the plea was made on a “unique basis”, accepted by the prosecution, that Clegg, of Hilton Lane, Prestwich, was sleepwalking.

The court heard that, in December last year, Clegg had been for a Chinese meal with his wife and drank “two or three pints” before returning home, having another drink, and going to bed.

Dominic Howell, prosecuting, said Clegg got in the car and was reported by witnesses driving “perfectly normally” along Bury New Road.

He drove for about a mile but the car suddenly swung across the road and clipped two cars before smashing into a third.

Mr Howell said he was still “asleep” and talking about going to his mother’s house before someone took the key from the ignition to stop him driving away.

Clegg was arrested and taken to Bury Police Station where he was breathalysed. He had 127mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

Clegg told the court that the last thing he remembered was going upstairs to bed.

He said: “The next recollection I have is waking up in the cells at the police station.”

He claimed he had been stressed due to his father having advanced vascular dementia and his mother looking for a new house.

Mr Lewis asked the court to use "special reasons" to suspend a driving ban, which is normally automatic for drink-driving.

But magistrates said that, while they accepted Clegg was sleepwalking, they had decided to ban him for 12 months.

He was also fined £650 and ordered to pay £300 prosecution costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Mr Howell said Clegg was aware that alcohol was a “contributory factor” to his sleepwalking.

The court also heard Clegg was involved in a similar incident in April last year when his car hit a tree near his home but he failed to get help.

Clegg, who has been on sick leave since December, said: “I probably should have done but I didn’t think I would do it again. That’s the first time I have ever left the house in one of these parasomnia, sleep-walking episodes.”

Since the accident, Clegg has cut-down on his drinking and locked his car keys inside a piano stool.

Outside court, Mr Lewis said it had been a “stressful time” for the doctor and he wished to “put the matter behind him”.