A woman who was more than twice the drink-drive limit crashed her car – while carrying two child passengers.

Heather Rosling drunk half a bottle of Prosecco while cleaning up after her 50th birthday party before getting behind the wheel.

She then drove the Toyota Auris almost six miles with the youngsters in the back of the car before losing control and crashing.

Rosling, a chartered secretary, ‘staggered and lost her balance’ while walking from the ambulance to the police car, the hearing was told.

At Macclesfield magistrates’ court on April 19, Rosling, of Dickens Lane, Poynton, admitted drink driving.

She was sentenced to 150 hours unpaid work and banned from driving for 23 months.

Simon Pover, prosecuting, said: “On March 28 just after 1pm police attended an accident on Wilmslow Road in Handforth at the junction with the Clay Lane. Police arrived to find a car on a grass verge and extensive damage to the point the car’s front was entirely compacted. The officer went to speak to defendant who was in the back of the ambulance with two children. The officer said she smelled strongly of alcohol. She was asked to come to the back of the police car to be breathalysed. As she got out of the ambulance she staggered and lost her balance. The officer had to hold her up to stop her from falling. She said ‘I’m not that bad. It was my 50th birthday party. I had half a bottle of Prosecco. It was stupid’.”

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He added: “The breathalyser reading was 92mg. The legal limit is 35mg. On the way to the police station Rosling became upset.

“A witness saw the defendant go through a give way junction, straight across the roundabout up a grass mound and into a hedge, spinning 90 degrees.”

Richard Dawson, defending Rosling, described the case as ‘very sad’.

He said: “She has been effectively teetotal for 18 months but decided to have a drink for her 50th birthday party. In the morning she was cleaning up and decided to finish the bottle of Prosecco off. She anticipated staying at home all day as it was a Bank Holiday. She had a call from her mother who is 83 summoning her and she took the foolish decision to drive.

“She then misjudged the roundabout. She suffered a cut and bruising. Her children were not injured.”