FOOTBALLER Tesfaye Bramble crashed his mother's car into a garden wall in Ipswich after drinking, a court heard today.Southend United striker Bramble, of Beatty Road, Ipswich, ran from police after the accident and was found in a nearby garden after police called in the dog unit.

FOOTBALLER Tesfaye Bramble crashed his mother's car into a garden wall in Ipswich after drinking, a court heard today.

Southend United striker Bramble, of Beatty Road, Ipswich, ran from police after the accident and was found in a nearby garden after police called in the dog unit.

The court heard he had been drinking over the course of the evening at a friend's birthday party celebrations before taking the decision to drive.

The 22-year-old admitted drink driving, driving without insurance, failure to stop after an accident and driving whilst not in accordance with his provisional licence on January 10, this year.

Police officers on duty spotted Bramble driving a red Volkswagen Golf down Hatfield Road and because of his speed they followed him.

Bramble drove into Benacre Road and collided with a garden wall, prosecutor Lesla Small told South East Suffolk Magistrates.

After the accident he ran from the car and a short while later was found by police sniffer dogs.

A blood test proved positive and he was found with 85 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80.

In police interview the footballer said he ran from the scene because he was only a provisional license holder.

Charles Riddleston, mitigating for the striker said: "Mr Bramble was not proud of his actions. The words that were used by him are that he was 'silly', 'regretted it', 'it was a mistake' and he was 'remorseful',"

Riddleston said that Bramble had since paid for the damage to the wall.

He said the car belonged to his mother and he was the named driver on the insurance policy but the insurance was not in force because he wasn't driving in accordance with the terms of his provisional license.

He told magistrates the accident was caused by road conditions. "This was confirmed by the officer who attended who saw Mr Bramble running away. He was slipping on the icy surface of the pavement.

"That was undoubtedly the reason why he had the relatively minor accident because of the conditions on the road," he told South East Suffolk Magistrates Court.

Mr Riddleston added that Bramble had only just been over the limit and ran from police out of panic because he was a provisional licence holder.

Bench Chairwoman, Mrs Anne Walker banned Bramble from driving for a year with the option of reducing his ban by three months if he successfully completes a drivers rehabilitation course.

In addition he was fined £300 for drink driving, £200 for failure to stop after an accident and £200 for no valid insurance.

No separate penalty was given to him for driving otherwise in accordance with his license and he was also ordered to pay £55 prosecution costs.