A DRINK driving undergraduate drove for an hour before being involved in a fatal collision, a court heard.

A woman in her 60s was driving a blue Kia Ceed when it and a black Audi A7 driven by Oliver Hartley collided in the early hours of August 1.

The Kia driver, who lived in the local area, was declared dead at the scene.

Hartley was charged with drink driving and sent to York Magistrates Court.

Police and prosecutors are waiting for the official accident investigator's report before deciding if he will face any charges related to the woman's death.

Hartley, 20, of Park Edge, Harrogate, pleaded guilty to drink driving.

Prosecuting, Martin Butterworth said Hartley had told police he had taken a wrong turning after calling in at McDonalds in Catterick Garrison and got lost.

"He had been driving for about an hour and must have been driving a significant distance, albeit he was lost," he said.

Magistrates only sentenced Hartley for drink driving. They banned him from driving for 20 months, fined him £250 and ordered him to pay a £34 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

His solicitor Michael O'Garra said Hartley had not driven since the crash.

He said evidence from a police officer involved in the investigation suggested that Hartley's manner of driving had not contributed to the collision.

Mr Butterworth said Hartley was taken to hospital after the collision and a blood sample was taken some time afterwards.

By a process called back calculation, police estimated he had been twice the legal alcohol limit at the time of the crash.

The defence did not dispute the figure.

Mr Butterworth said on July 31Hartley had been out in York with a friend for food and alcohol. He had returned to Harrogate, gone out again and had some more alcohol, returning home after midnight.

He took his mother's Audi A7 to go to McDonalds for food, arriving there shortly after 1am.

More than an hour later, the Audi and Kia had collided on the A6055 outside Marne Barracks in Catterick Garrison.

Mr O'Garra said Hartley had used public transport to get from York to Harrogate and when he had gone out in Harrogate later in the evening.

He was currently on a sabbatical year from his geography degree course at the University of Newcastle and was expecting to restart his studies in September.

He has two jobs - as a retail supervisor with a supermarket and convenience store chain and as a barman.

Mr Butterworth said police had decided to charge Hartley with the drink driving offence without waiting for the official accident investigation report for legal reasons.

Drink driving charges have to be laid within six months of the offence occurring.