A motorist has been handed nine penalty points for abandoning his broken down car on a roundabout.

Shaun Spencer told Ipswich magistrates he had unsuccessfully attempted to push the Audi A3 Sport to safety before leaving two thirds of the vehicle on the carriageway of a roundabout in Mortimer Road, Stowmarket.

The 38-year-old said he left the car to find a phone with which to call police, but failed to make contact with the control room and later returned to find the Audi had been towed away.

But Waseem Raja, prosecuting, said Spencer had instead got the car stuck after clipping a kerb at about 2.10am then repeatedly driven back and forth, damaging a road sign, while attempting to free it.

"We respectively conclude he caused damage and made off from the scene," added Mr Raja.

Spencer, of Trinity Walk, Stowupland, pleaded guilty to careless driving, failing to stop after a road accident and driving without insurance on October 31 last year.

He argued the vehicle had failed to start and was immobile after clipping the kerb.

"There's no way I reversed over the roundabout," he told the court, before explaining he had been tired after driving home from London and may have "dropped off for a split moment".

"My concentration must have slipped for a second," he added.

"It's possible I damaged the grass, but nothing else.

"I attempted to push the car, but one of the wheels locked.

"I waited with the motor and tried to get my phone to work, but it had run out of battery."

Spencer said he walked home to use the phone and made two disconnected calls the non-emergency number.

"I'm not saying I did nothing wrong," he told magistrates.

"There's no doubt the car was blocking the road."

Spencer said the insurance covering his car had been cancelled without his knowledge following a failed direct debit payment and a recent change of address.

He was handed nine penalty points and fined £410 for driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention.

Magistrates fined him another £410 and endorsed his licence for driving without insurance.

He was also fined £273 for failing to stop and ordered to contribute £100 towards the cost of prosecution.