A WOMAN drank a bottle of wine and then drove to an all night garage because she was desperate for a cigarette, a court heard.

Burnley magistrates were told how Jacqueline Laidlaw, 41, had been upset and unable to sleep or eat properly as her marriage of almost 20 years crumbled.

Her husband had been staying out all night and she had been lying awake, worrying about being on her own and over the state of her marriage.

Laidlaw, who was almost three times the legal limit when stopped by police in the early hours, was disqualified from driving for two years, fined £250 and must pay £40 costs, after admitting driving with excess alcohol.

Andrew Church-Taylor, defending, said Laidlaw had been married for almost 20 years and the past 18 months had not been the happiest.

For two weeks, her husband was staying out all night. She had not been able to sleep, wondering where he was and was not eating properly either.

She had drunk a bottle of wine as she was desperate for sleep and had not intended to drive. She slept for a number of hours and then woke up, desperate for a cigarette, although she had given up smoking two years ago.

Laidlaw, of Poets Road, Burnley, decided to go and look for an all night garage, thinking the alcohol would have been absorbed during the time she had slept.

Laidlaw, a keen motorcyclist, would not be able to go out on her cycle when she was banned.

Mr Church-Taylor went on: "She tells me that is perhaps the only pleasure left to her. She has no marriage to speak of and goes out on the bike. It is her only break from the drudgery of her life."

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