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A motorist who was followed by police as he crawled along the road at 10mph claimed he was ‘sleep driving’ behind the wheel.

Damien McManus was pursued by cops after they spotted him jumping him a red light in his blue Vauxhall Astra.

The 53-year-old swerved across lanes and crossed the highway into oncoming traffic in Birkenhead, Merseyside, before crashing into railings near a Shell garage.

McManus told Wirral Magistrates Court that he had conked out because of a cocktail of tablets prescribed by doctors which helped him sleep.

His barrister Chris Murphy said the medication Zolpidem could lead to “an extremely rare side effect, somnambulism, which can include sleep walking or sleep driving”.

Mr Murphy added: “The scientist said if Mr McManus had taken this drug he could have done something which he had no control over.”

The court heard on Tuesday how McManus had suffered from various illnesses after a car crash in Africa, along with depression.

He said that on the night of the crash he had watched television and taken 11 different tablets, including possibly two of the sleeping pills, and had no recollection of anything until he woke in a hospital bed.

But prosecutors said McManus was not complying with the prescription which said to take one pill “sparingly”, and the magistrates refused to believe he was sleep driving.

He was banned from driving for six months after admitting a charge of driving without insurance on March 21.