A taxi driver who consumed a “shocking” amount of alcohol before getting behind the wheel of his cab has been jailed.

Promise Moyo, 46, was found to be four times over the legal alcohol limit after he was stopped and arrested having been spotted swerving his Hyundai car erratically on a road in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.

The taxi driver pled guilty to driving with excess alcohol at Ipswich Magistrates’ Court and was sentenced to 18 weeks’ in prison and disqualified from driving for three years.

Suffolk Constabulary said Moyo was found to have consumed a “shocking” amount of alcohol.

The force’s road policing team later tweeted an image of an ice-filled alcoholic beverage discovered perched on the console of Moyo’s car. Police also tweeted a receipt measuring his alcohol limit.

The taxi driver was found by officers to have 158 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath – more than four times the legal limit of 35 micrograms.

Officers stopped Moyo’s vehicle at 3pm on Sunday following a report of erratic driving by a member of the public.

He was breathalysed at the roadside, where he tested positive for excess alcohol and then provided a further test after he was taken Bury St Edmunds Police Investigation Centre.

Inspector Chris Hinitt, of the Suffolk Constabulary, said: “I am completely shocked by the level of alcohol that Promise Moyo had in his system. To get behind the wheel of a car when more than four-times the legal alcohol limit is absolutely astounding."

He added: “Driving a licensed taxi cab in such circumstances clearly and directly imperils the lives of others. We in the Serious Collision Investigation Team – along with many other police colleagues – have seen too often the devastation caused by drink-driving and in my opinion it is completely reckless for anyone to take that risk.”