Police in the city of Zevenaar in the eastern Netherlands were called out after receiving reports that a driver was parked by the side of a road and “seemed unwell.”

When officers arrived and opened the car door, they were greeted by a “wall of foul stench” which they said almost made them drunk.

Taking the 45-year-old Polish man to the local police station, they were horrified to discover his breath contained a near-lethal 1,500 micrograms of alcohol.

The station’s previous record for a drink driver stood 30% lower at 1,200 micrograms.

Posting on social media, police said: “After an accurate breath test we saw something that none of us had ever seen before... this man should not have been standing at all, because he had no less than 1,500mcg (FIFTEEN HUNDRED!!!) in his breath!”

Declaring the man a “medical miracle”, officers duly confiscated his driver’s license and waited for him to sober up before sending him home.

The post added: “Not really a record to be proud of, by the way.

“The question is whether he still remembers where his car is parked, because so far it has not been moved from that parking spot."