AN over-the-limit pub landlady who smashed into a motorway central reservation abandoned her car and called a taxi.

Burnley magistrates heard how mother of three Susan Caroline Cassinelli, 42, later walked into a police station and owned up to what she had done.

She was found to be twice the drink- drive limit. Cassinelli, who is licensee of the Hour Glass, Walton Lane, Nelson, admitted driving with excess alcohol on November 7. She was fined £100, with £50 costs and was banned for 16 months.

Stephen Parker, prosecuting, told the court just before half past midnight there was an accident on the M65 westbound between Nelson and Burnley.

Police found a Hyundai Lantra with severe damage to its front end. It was towed away.

Two hours later, the defendant walked into Burnley police station, said she had been driving the vehicle and had panicked.

She confirmed she had been drinking before the accident. A breath test showed 71 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath -- the legal limit is 35. Cassinelli was of previous good character.

Duncan Nightingale, defending, said Cassinelli could have avoided detection. She could have claimed to have been drinking alcohol after the accident, not before it. The simplest thing would have been to have gone to ground until later on when a breath test would have been negative.

The defendant had been open and honest with police and in many respects had convicted herself, he added.

Mr Nightingale said Cassinelli and her partner had been drinking after the pub had closed. He believed, wrongly, she had been having an affair, they had a row and she left, driving along the motorway.