A drink-driver who crashed during TT while more than double the legal limit has been fined £1,700 and banned from driving.

Tatjanan Klescinska failed a breathalyser test with a reading of 76 after her van hit a truck.

Magistrates also ordered her to take an extended driving test at the end of her three-year ban and complete a drink-driving rehabilitation course.

Prosecuting advocate Peter Connick told the court that Klescinska, who lives at New Castletown Road in Douglas, was driving a Fiat Scudo late in the evening on June 7.

A witness said that he saw the van driving on Victoria Road in Douglas, near the junction with Prince’s Road.

As the Scudo approached the junction, the witness said he thought it was going too fast and he had to mount to the kerb to avoid colliding with it.

He said he then saw Klescinska’s vehicle hit a black truck and lift off the road before landing back down.

The witness went to help Klescinska and said that she was smelling of alcohol.

Police arrived and also reported a smell of booze, and that the defendant had bloodshot eyes and was slurring her words.

However, Klescinska said to officers: ‘I wasn’t the driver.’

She claimed that a man had been driving.

She failed a roadside breathalyser test and was subsequently arrested and taken to police headquarters.

Once there, she blew the reading of 76. The legal limit is 35.

During an interview, she again claimed that a male had been driving, saying she had met him at the Grandstand and he had offered to drive her home.

However, when police went to her home on a later date, she then told them: ‘I want to tell the truth. I’d been driving.’

Mr Connick said that no details of the damage to the other vehicle had been provided.

Defence advocate Sara-Jayne Dodge handed in a letter of apology from Klescinska.

The advocate said: ‘Ms Klescinska is a 42-year-old woman and doesn’t often drink alcohol.

‘This was the first time in three years, she attended the Grandstand for TT and the festive spirit took over.

‘A man offered her a lift on the back of his bike but she didn’t know him so she didn’t feel safe.

‘She then made the foolish decision to drive and accepted she should have made the short journey on foot.’

Ms Dodge said that the defendant was embarrassed about her comments made to the police, regarding the fictitious male driver, and was not proud of them.

The court heard that Klescinska has no previous convictions.

Magistrates also ordered her to pay £125 prosecution costs.

She will pay the fine and costs at a rate of £100 per month.