A woman has been banned from the roads after she pleaded guilty to drink-driving.

Clare Burton, 35, of Quaker Lane, Darlington, crashed into a parked vehicle after a night out with friends.

She was sentenced at Darlington Magistrates' Court yesterday. She was disqualified for 20 months.

The court heard that Burton, who works in the marketing department for mobile phone company Orange, had no previous convictions and had never appeared in court before.

The incident happened on November 13 after she had been out drinking to celebrate a friend's birthday.

Although the single-mother walked home after leaving her friends, the court heard she later used her car to go to a petrol station.

Steven Andrews, mitigating, said: "When she returned home, she found her daughter was unwell and, as there were no painkillers in the house, she decided to go to the local garage to buy some.

"With the benefit of hindsight, she realises calling a taxi to take her to the garage would have been the best option.

"Although the garage is not far from her home, she did not want to walk as she had been followed home from the pub and verbally assaulted, and was concerned this would happen again."

Burton took her company car, a Mini, but lost control when she applied the brakes and she collided with a parked car.

The police were called to the scene and a breath test gave a reading of 84 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Burton was invited to take the drink-driver rehabilitation course which, if successfully completed, would mean her ban would be reduced by five months.

She was also fined £400 and ordered to pay court costs of £43.