A woman who drove home from a friend’s house after receiving a call to say her mum was not well was over the drink drive limit.

Blackburn Magistrates' Court was told how police attention was drawn to the Ford Kuga being driven by Melanie Rickaby because she was hogging the middle lane on the M65 when the inside lane was clear.

Middle lane hogging itself is a traffic offence under careless driving legislation, and police can pull drivers over and issue them with three points on their licence or a £100 on the spot fine.

Rickaby, 48, of Commercial Street, Rishton, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol.

After she was stopped by police on May 1, she returned a reading of 164 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood, more than double the legal limit of 80mg.

She was banned from driving for 20 months, fined £120 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £48 victim surcharge.

Glenn Anderton, prosecuting, said the car driven by the defendant was spotted on the M65 at about 8.30pm hogging the middle lane.

“The officer caught up with the intention of getting the car to move over and noticed it was weaving across the lanes,” said Mr Anderton.

“The car left the motorway at Junction 7 and as it went towards Rishton nearly hit the kerb.”

Richard Prew, mitigating, said his client had been to Nelson to visit a friend who had recently had a leg amputated.

“Ther were some other friends there and they had a few drinks,” said Mr Prew.

“At that stage she intended staying the night but received a call to say her mother, who she cares for, was unwell.

"She decided to drive home and fully accepts it was a wrong decision.”