A TV presenter and archaeologist who crashed his car into a ditch while drunk and tried to cheat his way out of an investigation has been found guilty of drink driving.

Klint Janulis, who presents 10,000 BC on Channel 5 and lives near Bicester, claimed he had crashed his car near the town on his way home from a dinner at Trinity College, Oxford, after an animal jumped into the road.

The 39-year-old, who served in the US military for 14 years and is now doing a PhD in archaeology at Oxford University, said he had two glasses of wine at the dinner between 8pm and 9.30pm on October 31, 2018.

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While driving home to Freehold Street, Lower Heyford, he crashed his Toyota into a ditch on the B430 between Middleton Stoney and Weston-on-the-Green at around 12.45am.

At Oxford Magistrates’ Court on Friday, Janulis told the court that he did not sustain any injuries and called his wife, Amanda, who picked him up and took him home.

A member of public who saw the car in the ditch called the police, who arrived at the scene at 1.11am.

Oxford Mail:

File photo of Klint Janulis at a Stone Age campsite in the woods near Oxford. Picture: Andrew Walmsley

PC Clark, who appeared in court, said that after discovering Janulis was not there, he and his colleague PC Perry went to his house at about 1.45am.

Janulis’s wife anticipated their arrival and invited the police in.

PC Clark asked Janulis for his driving licence and when he came back into the lobby, he was holding a can of Stella Artois beer.

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The police asked him when he had last consumed alcohol, to which Janulis replied: “A few seconds ago.”

PC Clark then said that he would do a breathalyser test on Janulis who said: “You can do the test but it’s going to fail.”

The reading came out at 78mcg/100ml of breath – twice the legal limit.

Janulis told the court that he was not drunk at the time of the accident and that he had only had a small amount of alcohol at the dinner.

Oxford Mail:

Once he returned home, he said he had then drunk a glass of wine, one mason jar of wine and almost two cans of beer.

Janulis, who has also written children’s books, was discharged from the US military with PTSD.

He told the court that when he was in service, he was advised by his commanders to drink alcohol to de-stress after operations.

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After the accident, which he said caused him to have an episode as it involved him being trapped, he said 'stress drinking' was a way to cope with the situation.

Prosecutor Richard Atkins, said: “The reason for drinking was not because of PTSD, it was to frustrate the police from carrying out their duty. The sheer quantity consumed after the accident leads to believe that he had drunk to frustrate the investigation.”

Magistrate Stephen Vickers found Janulis guilty and ordered him to pay £750 in court costs, a £660 fine and a £66 victim surcharge.

He was banned from driving in the UK for 80 weeks, however his defence is appealing to the crown to lift the disqualification.