A woman more than three times the drink-drive limit was caught out by police investigating fuel thefts because she was driving a van.
Tracy Jones had a drink-drive conviction five years ago and was handed a 52-month ban by Spalding magistrates on Thursday.
She can cut the ban by 13 months if she completes a rehabilitation course.
Jones (36), of Welby Drive, Gosberton, must also serve nine months probation with attendance at alcohol awareness sessions and supervision, pay £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.
She admitted driving with 118 microgrammes of alcohol in breath – the legal limit is 35 – at a previous hearing when the case was adjourned for sentence. An interim ban was imposed on August 1.
Jim Clare, prosecuting, said Jones was stopped in the early hours of July 12 on Risegate Road, Gosberton Risegate, by police who described her as unsteady on her feet and smelling of intoxicants.
But solicitor Rachel Stevens, mitigating, said police made no criticism of her driving and told her they were investigating fuel thefts and stopped her vehicle because it was a van.
Miss Stevens said Jones is beset with family problems, looking after her father who has Parkinson’s disease and early-stage dementia, caring for her mother, who lives elsewhere in the country and has heart problems, and has herself been diagnosed with a pre-cancerous condition.
“She doesn’t know which way is up at the moment,” said Miss Stevens. “She is under a great deal of strain.”
Miss Stevens said Jones had a night out with friends, had no plans to drink, but one thing led to another and she clearly drank far too much.
She said the alcohol blighted her judgement, she drove and bitterly regrets that decision.