FORMER Wales rugby captain and Newport Gwent Dragons coach Colin Charvis was banned for driving for two years today for being more than double the drink-drive limit.

Charvis, 36, of Wentworth Crescent, Mayals, Swansea, appeared at Cardiff Magistrates, pleading guilty to drink driving.

Prosecutor David Cooke said Charvis’ Range Rover was stopped by police at 5.45am, on Sunday October 4. It was travelling on the A4232, and was pulled over near Culverhouse Cross interchange after officers saw it swerve between lanes.

Officers smelled alcohol on Charvis’ breath and he failed a roadside test. He gave a reading of 83 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, with the limit 35 mg alc/100 ml breath.

Charvis was taken to Fairwater Police Station, Cardiff, where he told officers he had drank around eight pints of alcohol the night before. He failed two further tests, the lowest reading being 87 mg alc/100 ml breath.

Charvis has another drink-drive conviction from 1998, the court heard.

Andrew Jones, defending, said Charvis was in Cardiff on Saturday evening and stayed at a friend’s house at Cardiff Bay. He woke in the morning and no longer feeling intoxicated, decided to drive home.

Mr Jones said: “He regrets his actions, it was an error of judgement.”

He asked for a minimal ban, saying Charvis’ role with the Dragons, involving a considerable commute each morning, would be affected by a longer period.

“He can seek accomodation in Newport,” said Mr Jones. “But if a ban is extended, it may have an adverse impact and Mr Charvis may have to seek alternative employment.”

He added that Charvis’ charity work, such as his involvement as patron of the Sparkle Appeal, raising funds for the centre for disabled children at High Cross, may also be curtailed.

District Judge Gerwyn Watkins took into account an early guilty plea and the level of alcohol in Charvis’ system.

He fined him £900 with £85 costs and a £15 surcharge, while a two year ban willl be reduced to 18 months on completion of a drink-drive rehabilitation course.