A 46-year-old drink-driver has been fined £500 and banned from driving for one year.

Mirelle Natasha Saxon admitted the offence after failing a breathalyser test with a reading of 41.

Magistrates also ordered her to take an extended driving test after her ban ends.

Prosecuting advocate Barry Swain told the court that police were called to an accident on Cooil Road in Braddan at 9.50am on August 19.

Another driver had gone into the back of Saxon’s Volkswagen Caddy.

Saxon, who lives at School Road in Onchan, failed a breathalyser test at the scene and was subsequently arrested.

At police headquarters, a further test produced the reading of 41. The legal limit is 35.

Saxon was then offered a blood test, as is the law for readings under 50.

She accepted and the blood test later produced a reading of 63. The legal limit for blood is 80.

However, an expert’s back-calculation reported that the reading at the time of driving would have been not less than 106.

Defence advocate Stephen Wood handed in a letter of reference for his client and asked for credit to be given for her guilty plea.

Mr Wood said that the accident had been the fault of the other driver and not due to Saxon’s drink-driving, and that police had only been called due to an automatic calling system in one of the vehicles.

The advocate said that insurers of the other car had accepted liability.

‘This was a case sadly where Ms Saxon still had alcohol in her system from the night before,’ said Mr Wood.

‘She is absolutely distraught that she finds herself in this position. If she loses her licence she is going to lose her job at a time when costs are going up for us all.

‘It is a frightening time for her. She is devastated to be here today.

‘She is not a lady we’ll be seeing here again.’

Magistrates chair Pam Teare said: ‘Today is a little bit of a lesson for everyone that we need to be mindful if we have been drinking the night before.’

Saxon will pay the fine as well as prosecution costs of £125 at a rate of £10 per week.