A COMPANY director who was nearly four times over the drinkdriving limit in the afternoon could have killed someone, a court heard.

Joanne Potter, aged 39, had two young children in the BMW when she smashed into the back of another car, Bolton Magistrates’ Court was told.

She was yesterday banned from driving for three years after admitting driving with excess alcohol.

Sentencing, John Howarth chairman of the bench told her: “You were nearly four times over the drink driving limit. Some people cannot stand up when they have had that much alcohol.

“The fact you had two children in the car is an aggravating factor, they could have been seriously injured or killed.”

The court was told that she was driving on Snydle Way, Westhoughton, when she drove into the back of another car at 2.30pm on Sunday, February 27.

She had been drinking the night before, but the court heard she felt okay to drive.

Ruth Atkinson, prosecuting, said: “The lady in the other car, Mrs Hague, got out and said ‘what are you doing?’.

“She could see that the driver was showing signs of being drunk and she rang the police.”

When Potter was tested at the police station, she had 138 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Potter, a married mother of four, of Radbourne Grove, Bolton, is a company director with her husband for a brick work firm, Potter Brick Work.

Natalie Darwen, defending, said Potter has suffered from anxiety and depression for three years and has been seeking help from her doctor.

She had a “vast amount”

to drink until the early hours of the morning before she went to bed.

Miss Darwen added: “She did not have anything to eat and she felt OK so she drove. She is mortified to find herself in this position.”

The blood alcohol level was so severe that she could have been sent to prison, but magistrates ordered her to do 120 hours of unpaid work and pay £85 costs after hearing her guilty plea and that she had no previous convictions.