An Ipswich bar worker caught drink-driving while using her mobile phone has been banned from the road.

Lisa Hall, of St Helen’s Street. Ipswich, admitted driving with excess alcohol, driving otherwise in accordance with a licence and using a mobile phone while driving when she appeared before the town’s magistrates.

The offences occurred on July 10.

Prosecutor Colette Harper said Hall was driving along Woodbridge Road at around 2.50pm when police stopped her Ford Focus as she was seen using a mobile phone.

Her breath smelled of alcohol and she was arrested on suspicion of drink-driving.

A subsequent breath test showed she had 46 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 mcgs.

Hall, representing herself, told the court: “I had not been drinking that day. It was carrying on from the night before. I had been using my mobile phone on hands-free but the woman couldn’t hear me.

“I literally picked it up then”

Hall was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £110 for drink-driving. She was also fined £35 for the mobile phone offence.

In addition the 44-year-old was ordered to pay £85 costs, a £20 victim surcharge and a £150 criminal courts charge.