A MOTHER-of-two who was almost three times the limit in a second drink-drive offence has kept her freedom.

Julie Anne Elizabeth Humphrey, 33, sobbed as Burnley Magistrates heard how she had been devastated and gone out drinking heavily after her ex-husband told her one of their little girls could return to live with her -- but then changed his mind.

Humphrey was told by the bench she could have gone to jail but instead they fined her £1,000, with £50 costs and banned her from driving for four years.

The defendant, of Cottontree Lane, Colne, admitted driving with excess alcohol on 21 August.

Nigel Harrison, prosecuting, said Humphrey had been spoken to by police around 11.45pm and was arrested and taken to the police station. She was unable to supply a breath sample for medical reasons but provided blood instead. The reading was 232 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80.

Trevor Grice, defending, said Humphrey had a previous conviction for excess alcohol five years ago.

She had not gone out deliberately to flout the law, but the offence was committed against a "tragic" domestic background.

The defendant had two children by her first marriage and had then had a relationship in which she suffered violence. At the time of her divorce she had had a nervous breakdown and her two daughters went to live with their father , but it was never intended to be a long-term solution. Humphrey tried to turn her life around, sought medical help and got work, in a bid to get her two daughters back. Mr Grice said the defendant's ex-husband had agreed that the younger girl could go back home to her mother but then changed his mind. That had a devastating effect on Humphrey, who went out drinking to excess, but did not take her car. She took the next day off work.

The next day she got up, had nothing to eat and her husband later rang and asked if she could pick him up from work. The defendant thought she was fit to drive and on the way back she and her husband called at the pub. She was certain she did not have more than two drinks and had only gone a relatively short distance when stopped by police.