A physics teacher fears his career is at an end after crashing while drink driving.
Nathan Moffat, 29, was said to be "tearful and remorseful" when police officers arrived at the scene on Radford Boulevard, a court heard.
He was banned from driving for 20 months and fined £390 with £124 costs.
He admitted driving with 71 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, just over double the limit.
Amreek Jandoo, mitigating, told city magistrates: "The offence places him in detriment to his career as a physics teacher at a school.
"He is currently suspended and as a result, he tells me he will lose his job. He will have to find alternative employment."
On February 1, he had some alcohol and then drove to a supermarket, believing he was under the drink drive limit, added Mr Jandoo.
Kwok Wan, prosecuting, said that a black Ford Focus was going down Radford Boulevard when it hit parked cars. The noise woke one of the owners who went out to see what was happening.
The airbag had inflated and Moffat was sitting upright in the driver's seat.
Mr Wan said: "He initially thought the driver was dead because he was against the airbag."
But then Moffat spoke and identified himself. When he took a breath test at the request of police officers, he was "tearful and remorseful," added Mr Wan.
Presiding magistrate Bruce Cameron, who sat with two colleagues, told Moffat of Chapman Court, Nottingham: "Obviously you understand this is a serious offence.
"You were more than double the drink-drive limit. People could have been injured by your actions."
If Moffat completes a course on the perils of the offence, his disqualification will be reduced by 152 days.
