A WOMAN who drove while drunk to buy a sandwich is today banned from the road for 16 months.Maureen Smyth claimed she had not eaten on April 25 and had drunk alcohol at lunchtime and in the evening before she drove to a Spar store in High Road West, Felixstowe, late at night.

A WOMAN who drove while drunk to buy a sandwich is today banned from the road for 16 months.

Maureen Smyth claimed she had not eaten on April 25 and had drunk alcohol at lunchtime and in the evening before she drove to a Spar store in High Road West, Felixstowe, late at night.

South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court heard the 48-year-old's decision to drive was due to her being in poor health and constant pain and also coping with ill parents and an ill husband.

Smyth, of Kemsley Road, Felixstowe, pleaded guilty to a charge of drink driving at the court on May 1.

Stephen Colman, prosecuting, said: “On April 25 an officer in an unmarked police car watched a green Honda Civic drive past the police station towards the Elizabeth Orwell Hotel.

“He followed the vehicle, saw it do a U-turn and drive towards High Road West.

“When the car pulled up he spoke to the driver and could smell alcohol.”

A breath test was then carried out which proved Smyth had 60 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Michael Stephenson, mitigating, said: “She knows she was wrong to have got in the car that night.

“She had been at home that day and hadn't eaten. She drank something at lunchtime and in the evening.

“She drove to get out of the house and went to the Spar to buy a sandwich.”

Smyth was disqualified from driving for 16 months, fined £150 and made to pay £43 court costs.