A drink-driver who was almost three times the legal limit when she got her car wedged on a collapsible bollard has been banned from driving.

Sarah Schock was so drunk on Christmas Eve last year that an engineer working nearby who saw what happened had to take the keys out of the ignition as she repeatedly tried to free her vehicle.

A court heard earlier this year she had driven her blue Peugeot after a drinking session but got it stuck on the plastic bollard in Heath Road, Linton, near Maidstone.

Schock, of Victoria Court, East Farleigh, was charged with drink driving and admitted the offence when she appeared before Medway magistrates on February 15.

Rajni Prashar, prosecuting, said at the time: “She got her car stuck on a collapsible bollard and she was in the driver’s seat and an engineer fixing some lights witnessed her trying to manoeuvre off the bollard.

“He dialled 999 because she was slurring her speech and he took the keys out of the ignition and when the police arrived she failed a roadside breath test.

“She had a previous conviction for excess alcohol in 2019, so she’s looking at a three-year minimum ban.”

A breath test at a police station revealed the 50-year-old had 99 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

The court also heard Schock had been going through personal difficulties in her life and had struggled with depression and anxiety for some years after her husband was murdered several years ago in Orpington.

She was also worried about her son, who was ill in hospital.

Magistrates told her she had consumed a lot of alcohol before she drove and gave a high reading so they opted to adjourn sentencing and ordered a pre-sentencing report be carried out.

They placed her on an interim driving ban until her sentencing which was held at the same court on May 2.

At the hearing, Schock was banned from driving for 45 months and ordered to wear an alcohol abstinence tag for 60 days.

The bench also ordered her to attend 15 rehabilitation sessions with probation and she was also told to pay a victim surcharge of £114 as well as £85 court costs.

If Schock completes a drink-driving course, her ban will be reduced by 45 weeks.