A WOMAN who was three and a half times the drink drive limit as she took a child to its parent has been banned from driving for four years.

A member of the public alerted police to Faith Appleby’s actions as she drove erratically on Tadcaster Road and nearly crashed, said Cathy Turnbull, prosecuting.

He continued with the 999 call as he followed her and told police where she was going until she pulled up.

It was the second time in five years Appleby had been caught drink driving, York magistrates heard.

Appleby, 41, formerly of Whin Road, Dringhouses, and now living in Dewsbury, pleaded guilty to drink driving.

In addition to the four-year driving ban, she was given a 12-month community order and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and an £85 statutory surcharge.

“It may be more by good luck rather than anything else that you are not facing an even more serious charge,” senior magistrate Richard Goodacre, sitting with a colleague, told her.

For her, Steve Munro said: “The background is tragic” and handed in a letter from Appleby. He said Appleby had severe mental health difficulties which had led to her being confined to hospital for a time.

About the events of January 19 leading up to the drink driving, he said: “It was a set of circumstances someone rational could have dealt with. This woman is not thinking rationally. She decided to drive her car to a friend’s house. On driving to the friend’s house, she decided to turn round and drive back, realising she had made a misjudgement.”

She was now getting help.

Ms Turnbull said Appleby gave a reading of 118 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

During her journey out and back along Tadcaster Road, she drove at between 15mph and 20 mph and when the member of the public pulled up alongside her, both she and the child were in distress.