A DRINK driver who got behind the wheel again just three days after being banned has been jailed for four months.

Father-of-one Ian Phillips was told by magistrates at Bolton on Tuesday that they had a duty to protect the public.

The court heard that Phillips, who recently moved to Woodlands Walk, Mosley Common, from his previous home in Knowsley Grove, Horwich, was more than four times over the limit when he was stopped in his company Vauxhall Vectra by police on Chorley Old Road, Horwich in December last year.

Bernard Donnelly, prosecuting said Phillips, aged 39, a senior technician with disaster restoration company Rapid Support Services, was spotted meandering across the white line of the road and was eventually stopped after initially refusing to stop.

Tests revealed he was more than four times over the limit.

Magistrates were told that Phillips, who pleaded guilty to driving while banned, excess alcohol and driving without insurance, also had previous convictions for drink driving offences including a 18 month driving ban in 1988 and a five year driving ban imposed in December last year -- just three days before the current offence was committed.

Sarah Durber, defending, said Phillips' offending had been caused by depression at the death of his father last year, the break up of his marriage and his inability to see his four-year-old son.

Despite knowing he was banned from driving he had been caught behind the wheel last month because he had wanted to drive near his son's home in the hope of catching a glimpse of him.

"He knows now what he did was wrong but the depth of his despair overrode any thought processes he had," she said.

She added that Phillips' employers had been extremely supportive of him.