A DRINK DRIVE mother, who was arrested after repeatedly swerving towards the hedge, is among the latest batch of alcohol-fuelled motorists to be banned.

By GEORGINA WROE

georgina.wroe@eveningstar.co.uk

A DRINK-DRIVE mother who was arrested after repeatedly swerving towards the kerb, is among the latest batch of alcohol-fuelled motorists to be banned.

On her arrest, 41-year-old Debbie Grant was found to be more than twice the legal limit after drinking with friends on Sunday night.

Police arrested Grant at 11.10pm on Sunday after they caught her swerving along Foxhall Road in a white Vauxhall Astra after a night out with friends.

Prosecutor Rosalind Clark told South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court: "Miss Grant also slowed down when on-coming vehicles approached. She was arrested and taken to Woodbridge police station."

A roadside breath test revealed Grant, from Felixstowe Road, Ipswich, had 81 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 mcg.

Defender, Graham Skippen, said: "She hadn't eaten that day and she went out for a couple of drinks with friends. She was driving carefully. She is very contrite and apologetic."

The two-year ban will prevent Miss Grant from visiting her children who live in Kent, he added.

The court heard Grant, who admitted the offence, had previous convictions not relevant to her drink-driving offence.

She was fined £250 and ordered her to pay £55 costs.

In the same court, 43-year-old father Paul Smith blamed a hangover and three pints of lager shandy for making him more than twice the limit.

When Smith was tested he had 78 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

But chairwoman of the bench Susan Humphrey handed Smith, who admitted the offence, a two-year ban and fined him £300 and ordered him to pay £40 costs.

She said: "Regarding this offence, you were more than twice the legal limit when you were stopped."

Police who suspected Smith had been drinking arrested him driving his Citroen Xantia near Dedham on Sunday evening.

Smith, from Mornington Avenue Ipswich, told the court: "I didn't realise I was over the limit.

"I had a lot to drink on Saturday night but the following evening I only had three pints of lager shandy and I have got witnesses to prove it."

A third drink driver, self- employed Suffolk builder Jamie Procter, 31, was banned from driving for a year after a blood test showed he had been driving with 106 milligrammes of alcohol in his blood when the legal limit is 80.

Procter, who was not represented in court, admitted driving a Vauxhall Frontera along Ellenbrook Green in Ipswich when drunk on October 29 this year.

He was fined £300 and ordered to pay £40 costs.