Mansfield drink driver overshot traffic lights

Jade Richards attracted the attention of officers on Oak Tree Lane, at 3.55am, on March 23, and they followed her to Bellamy Road, where she was stopped.

A test revealed she had 74 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Sarah Neale, mitigating, said Richards had been at a friend’s house where she drank three large glasses of wine, but had been asked to leave after the friend fell ill.

“She felt she was in a fit position to drive,” said Ms Neale.

Richards, 20, of Astbury Avenue, Rainworth, admitted driving with excess alcohol when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

District judge Jonathan Taaffe told her: “Whatever the reason for driving, you should never have been near a motor vehicle.

“You could have killed yourself or, God forbid, innocent road users.”

He banned Richards for 16 months, but offered her a drink drive rehab course which will reduce the disqualification by 121 days if completed before February 2019.

She was fined £350, and ordered to pay costs of £85 and a £35 government surcharge.