A panic-ridden drink-driver who was making an early morning journey on the A12 to help her stricken grandmother has been banned from the road.

Julie Filtness pleaded guilty at South East Suffolk Magistrates’ Court to driving with excess alcohol at Foxhall, near Ipswich.

The offence occurred on June 15.

Prosecutor Wayne Ablett said police saw the 35-year-old driving a Ford Fiesta on the Nacton-bound stretch of the A12.

The car’s headlights were on full beam and its fog lights at the front were also on.

Mr Ablett said the Fiesta was struggling to keep within the white lines on the road.

It was pulled over into a layby near Seven Hills at around 1.05am.

A subsequent breath test showed Flitness had 85 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcgs.

Filtness, a carer of Crescent Road, Dagenham, represented herself in court.

She told the magistrates: “I was on holiday – a caravan holiday. My nan panicked and rang me and said she had fallen and she could not get hold of my dad and I panicked.

“I’m sorry.”

Magistrates disqualified Filtness from driving for 17 months.

She was also fined £200 and must pay £85 costs, as well as £30 to the victims’ fund.