A GRIEVING soldier ruined her chances of joining the police the night she overturned her car after a function at her barracks, a court heard.

Leanne Shirreffs, a lance corporal in the Royal Engineers who has seen service in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland, was still recovering from her boyfriend's suicide as she headed from Claro Barracks, Ripon, to her Bradford home in the early hours of July 1, magistrates were told.

Peter Scott, prosecuting, said 22-year-old Shirreffs, of Tyersal, lost control of her Nissan Micra car on the A61 from Harrogate to Ripon, near Hollin Hall.

The car left the road and landed on its roof. Motorists found Shirreffs injured and crying and urging them to call police and an ambulance.

Mr Scott told Harrogate magistrates that police arrived to be told by Shirreffs: ''I was drunk and drove my car and crashed. And I wanted to join the police force as well."

Tests showed Shirreffs had drunk more than twice the legal amount of alcohol and pleaded guilty to drink-driving. Her solicitor, Andrew Thompson, said she still bore scars from the accident. He said: "Her face will remind her of her foolishness in drink-driving that evening."

He said Shirreffs, who left the Army yesterday, had attended a mandatory function at the barracks. But when it ended, she wanted to get home to her parents because she was homesick, largely as a result of her boyfriend having committed suicide some weeks earlier.

Shirreffs, who was fined £200 with £45 costs and given a 16-month driving ban, was told by magistrate Canon Keith Punshon: "You have our sympathy for your bereavement.

"We can draw a line under this and the rest is up to you."