A MOTHER of four almost three times the legal drink-drive limit has been banned for three years after clocking up her second excess alcohol offence.

Burnley magistrates heard Sharon Brooker, 38, drove down a narrow road with her lights off around midnight.

Brooker, of Higher Tentre, Burnley, admitted driving with excess alcohol. She was given a 12-month community rehabilitation order.

Andy Robinson, prosecuting, told the court that police saw the defendant driving in Todmorden Road, Burnley, and thought she was trying to avoid them.

They turned their car round and followed her and she turned into a narrow road and drove slowly in the darkness.

The defendant was stopped, co-operated with police and failed a roadside breath test.

Mr Robinson said Brooker was taken to the police station where the lower of two breath tests showed 98 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 mililitres of breath.

The legal limit is 35.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said Brooker, who was unemployed and on benefits, had bought the car for £150 and hoped to sell it and make a quick profit.

It had been parked up but she got behind the wheel because her 15-year-old daughter's dog was missing. She went looking for it.

That was why she was driving slowly around the streets.

The solicitor added the defendant, who suffered from depression, would drink when her children were in bed and had rather too much.

She would be glad of help to put in touch with agencies which would assist her.