POLICE alerted to a traffic incident at The Village Hotel in Bury, arrived to find a drink-driver heading away from the location and driving erratically, a court was told.

Tracy Ann Withers, a 34-year-old single mother, of Hunters Hill, Unsworth, appeared before Rochdale magistrates, where she admitted driving at Heap Bridge with two and a half times the legal level of alcohol in her system.

After reading reports the magistrates decided to make Withers subject to a community punishment order for 80 hours, banned her from driving for two years and ordered her to pay £53 court costs.

Miss Nicola Bruce, prosecuting, said a police patrol received a message about an incident on the car park of The Village Hotel.

They spotted a Rover stopped on the slip road out of the village complex, and saw the car roll backwards towards another vehicle before revving up and jerking forward into the roundabout area.

The Rover was stopped and Withers was questioned about her "erratic" driving. The police also spoke to Withers about her driving on the car park earlier, in which there had been a collision with another vehicle.

She smelled of alcohol and was unsteady on her feet. A reading showed her to have 93 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath compared with the legal limit of 35mg in 100ml.

Defending solicitor Mr Ian Mann pointed out that Withers was a woman with no previous convictions. She had met a friend at The Village Hotel and had had too much to drink and should not have driven. The incident on the car park had been minor and was being sorted out through insurance.