An aristocratic TV reality star downed almost a bottle of red wine after a car smash near his stately pile.

Arthur Fulford then tried to down a glass of red wine as he was being arrested for drink-driving and his mother filmed the incident at their crumbling mansion.

A court heard police found a note at the scene after Fulford overturned his Ford Focus yards from the family’s 3,000 acre Great Fulford estate near Dunsford in Devon.

The note – which police found in a sealed plastic wallet – read: ’Contact this number. Driver okay. No injuries. Apologies for car in road’.

Police then went to the Great Fulford mansion where they saw 24-year-old Arthur – heir to the estate – and his mother Cassandra.

The Fulford family have appeared in reality shows The F***ing Fulfords and Life is Toff.

Exeter magistrates court was told that police went to the 48-room mansion in the early hours of September 2016.

Two officers asked him what he had drunk and Fulford, of Crookham Road, London, said he had ‘drunk half a bottle of red wine’ when he returned home as he was ‘shaken up’ by the crash.

He was given a breath test and blew 69mg of alcohol – twice the legal top limit for driving – and he was arrested for driving with excess alcohol.

But the court heard Fulford was adamant he had been drinking after the incident and showed the police and the near empty bottle he had been drinking from.

Prosecutor Freddie Huntley said: ’The defendant started to become verbally aggressive and obstructive to the police.’

She said he tried to drink from a glass of wine and as he was arrested his mother videoed the scene – which police said would be seized as evidence.

His mother also tried to prevent the officers from getting the bottle of wine, and slammed the door shut. 

Fulford was taken to an Exeter hospital after complaining of a tender neck and was later breath-tested at the police station where the reading was now 43mg – just over the 38mg limit.

Fulford told police: ’You don’t roll a car and not have a drink afterwards.’

He said he had 4/5 of a bottle and had eaten ‘some toast, cheese, parma ham and brie’.

PC Luke Moffatt, who went to the crash in Fulford Road, Dunsford, Devon, said Fulford was ‘slurring his words, his eyes were glazed and he was drunk’.

He said Fulford and his mother had been drinking the red wine upstairs in the library.

PC Moffatt said Fulford began ’swearing and was belligerent’ and then tried to down a glass of red wine which was on a window ledge.

He stopped him by grabbing the glass and the contents spilled over his jumper when it was knocked out of Fulford’s hand.

Fulford said he wanted to go to the loo but had ‘trouble going’ and police said he was wasting time and not making a concerted effort.

He said as the officers tried to talk to Fulford he ‘continued to talk over us’ as his mother filmed the incident on a tablet.

Fulford denied drink-driving and claimed a ’hip flask defence’ of post-accident consumption.

But the JPs convicted him. He had earlier admitted resisting arrest in the same incident.

Fulford, a courier, was banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay a total of £1,345 in fines and costs.