A PROMISING young Gwent golfer was banned from driving and ousted from his club when he took a golf cart in a booze-fuelled prank.

Richard Owen Gardner, of Trostrey, St Dials, was found by police driving the golf cart along a Cwmbran street while three times over the legal alcohol limit. At the time he was also banned from driving.

Newport magistrates yesterday banned the 19-year-old from driving for three years and sentenced him to a 120-hour community rehabilitation order.

The court heard how just after 10pm on August 6, following a party at the Greenmeadow Golf Club, Gardner (pictured) took the managing director's golf cart without permission and drove it out of the club grounds.

Staff at the club informed the police but it was not until an hour-and-a-half later that Gardener was picked up driving the petrol-powered cart - which has a top speed of 5mph - along Station Road, Croesyceiliog.

He was breathalysed and found to have a level of 109mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

Gardner pleaded guilty to taking a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, driving while over the legal alcohol limit, driving while disqualified and without insurance.

Defending, Alan Bolter, said Gardner had been a member of the golf club since he was six, had achieved a handicap of 5 or 6 and had a promising amateur career ahead of him.

He said: "He has now been banned permanently from the golf club. He has learnt a lesson and it is not lost upon him."

Mr Bolter said Gardner deeply regretted the incident.

He said: "At its minimum this was a youthful prank and at its maximum a silly and foolhardy act.

"My client cannot offer any reasonable or sensible explanation - he accepts that he had had too much to drink."

Managing director of the golf club, Peter Richardson, said: "He was a junior member for some years and quite a good golfer. He wasn't a member when this incident happened. I automatically banned him from the premises indefinitely. I don't want that sort of trouble here.

"He stole a cart that I was driving, my own personal cart. I pulled up outside the door and jumped out, leaving the keys in. The next thing I knew he was driving it off down the road.

"I don't know why he did it, perhaps it was an act of bravado. He had a few beers and thought he could do whatever he wanted."

Gardner was also ordered to pay £40 costs.