ELIZABETH CLINTON was sitting on the settee in her bungalow home when a drink driver smashed into the front wall, a court heard.

A bookcase missed the woman's head by inches, and ornaments were scattered across the room in the accident at Tockwith, near York.

Magistrates at Harrogate were told yesterday that the driver of the car was 21-year-old David Critchley who had been drinking in his local pub and then with friends before getting behind the wheel of his VW Golf in the early hours of last Saturday morning.

Critchley, of Lucas Road, Tockwith, pleaded guilty to driving with more than two-and-a-half times the legal alcohol limit in his body. He was banned from driving for two years, fined £300 and ordered to pay £55 costs.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, told the court that the car failed to take a bend in Prince Rupert Drive, Tockwith.

It uprooted a telegraph pole and a seven-foot conifer before spinning backwards into the bungalow where Mrs Clinton, a 66-year-old widow, was sitting on her settee.

Mr Butterworth, who read extracts from a letter written to the court by Mrs Clinton's daughter, Michelle Crowhurst, said the bungalow was now structurally unsound. ''The whole front section will have to be taken down and rebuilt at a cost in excess of £25,000.''

He said: ''Mrs Clinton is now apparently having trouble sleeping. Clearly this has brought a great upset to her life.''

Mrs Crowhurst wrote saying that the bookcase had missed her mother's head by six inches with books, lamps and ornaments - some of them wedding anniversary gifts bought by her late husband - crashing down around her. ''Naturally she was very shocked and frightened.''

In mitigation for Critchley, Charles Hartley said he lived only five minutes' walk from his local pub where he met friends most weekends for a drink.

Last Friday, he was in the pub until closing time and spent the early hours of Saturday at a friend's house nearby. ''He left there at about 5am indicating he was going to walk home. He remembers nothing more until the accident occurred. He still doesn't know to this day why he drove.''

Mr Hartley said Critchley, a call centre worker with a previously unblemished driving record, was full of contrition. ''We are all entitled to make one or two mistakes in our lives. This is his first, let's hope it is the last,'' he said.

Updated: 11:15 Friday, January 17, 2003