A 22 YEAR old out for the evening with a university friend was forced to take over the driving after the other woman became ill near Skipton and was unable to carry on, heard magistrates.

Millicent King had taken over and was heading to Airedale Business Park off Keighley Road, Skipton, at around 2.45am on July 16, where she intended to leave her friend's car and book a taxi, when she was seen by police pulling out sharply from a roundabout and driving slowly from side to side.

Police followed her to the business park where she admitted to drinking three glasses of wine during the evening. A roadside breath test was positive and she was taken to the police station where she was found to have 56 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

King, a teaching assistant from Earby, admitted drink driving. In mitigation, John Mewies, said King had an impeccable character and had acted in what was an emergency situation, the Skipton court heard on Friday.

It had been arranged that her friend, the owner of the car, was to do the driving for the evening and was not to drink at all, said Mr Mewies. She had however done some drinking, had become very poorly and believed she was in danger of fainting.

She stopped the car, King helped her friend into the passenger seat and took over, driving the vehicle slowly about a mile to the business park where it was her intention to leave it, said Mr Mewies.

"Because it was a busy main road, her friend suggested it was advisable that the vehicle was moved off the carriageway to an industrial estate about a mile away. Miss King helped her friend out of the driver's seat and into the passenger seat and drove very carefully off the main road to the industrial estate where she intended to leave it secure and get a taxi.

"This was an emergency," said Mr Mewies, who added that King's friend had accepted a degree of responsibility for what had happened.

King, of Skipton Road, Earby, who the court was told would not lose her job, was banned from driving for 14 months and fined £213. She will also have to pay costs of £85 and a surcharge of £85. If she completes a drink-drivers rehabilitation course her ban will be reduced by 14 weeks.