A MOTORIST whose car was found crashed into a ditch near Longtown was over the drink drive limit.

Carlisle’s Rickergate Magistrates’ Court heard how police were called out to the A6071 near Longtown on February 1 after a Volvo car driven by Samantha Jane Graham, 35, left the road and crashed.

Peter Kelly, prosecuting, said that police were alerted by Ministry of Defence staff who worked nearby. The defendant’s car was the only vehicle involved.

The accident happened shortly before midnight.

“She accepted she was the driver,” said Mr Kelly.

When the police breathalysed her, the result showed she had exactly twice the legal alcohol limit for driving in her body.

Mr Kelly said: “The defendant was interviewed and she was cooperative. She accepted she was the driver but she said she had no memory of what caused the accident.”

The defendant, a lady of previous good character, volunteered that she had been out drinking earlier that evening.

Chris Toms, defending, pointed out Graham’s honesty, saying that police may have had trouble making the drink driving charge stick if the mother-of-two had not admitted driving the car after her arrest.

“She’s been honest,” he said. “She’d been out that night to a local pub with friends. She can remember going to a local Indian restaurant and then it’s all a blank. She has no idea where she was going. Thankfully nobody else was involved.”

The lawyer said that Graham, of Halcrown Crescent, Gretna, worked as a carer and would lose her job as a result of the inevitable driving ban.

Her place of work was a 35 minute drive from where she lives so she would have no option but to give up her job.

“She simply won’t be able to get to where she works,” added Mr Toms.

Magistrates imposed a 20 month driving ban, along with a fine of £184, a £32 victim surcharge, and £85 costs.

They also offered the defendant a drink drivers’ rehabilitation course, which if completed in time will reduce her ban by 20 weeks.

Magistrates said that their sentence took into account the defendant’s guilty plea to the offence of driving with excess alcohol and her mitigation.