A grandmother has been spared a jail sentence for her fourth conviction for drink-driving after telling a court she turned to the bottle to cope with a severe bout of loneliness.
Alison Maher, 50, a former senior supervisor for an aerospace firm, was found to be more than three times the alcohol limit at 11.20am after she drove 13 miles to see friends.
She later admitted she had been 'eight out of 10 drunk'. Police were alerted by another motorist who dialled 999 and gave a running commentary as they saw Maher's Kia Sorrento being driven on the wrong side of the road before mounting a grass verge on a country lane. READ MORE: Moment armed cops swoop on man who didn't know he had grenades in his rucksack Officers arrived to find the Kia parked partially in a lay-by with the rest of the vehicle sticking out into the road.
A quarter full bottle of white wine was discovered on the passenger seat. Tests showed horse-loving Maher had 119 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
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