A drink-driver has been banned from the road for a second time after crashing into a car being pushed along the A14 by another inebriated motorist.

Madeleine Fairley was disqualified until 2022 after trying to drive 45 miles through three counties while almost three times the alcohol limit.

The 23-year-old was followed to a farm track by a member of the public who witnessed her Ford Fiesta collide with a Nissan Micra being pushed along the A14 by another drink-driver just before midnight on Saturday, March 9.

The student nurse appeared before magistrates in Ipswich last week to admit failing to stop after an accident and driving with 101 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit being 35mcg.

Prosecutor Wayne Ablett said a number of vehicles had been forced to stop behind Samuel Harris as he pushed the broken-down and damaged Micra – in darkness – between the inside and outside lane of the A14 near the Claydon slip road.

When Fairley’s Fiesta clipped the Micra, another motorist tracked her journey onto the A140 to Earl Stonham, where her vehicle struck an embankment at about 50mph before eventually stopping in a farm track.

Fairley told police she had panicked and fled the scene, knowing she was over the limit after drinking wine at home in Tendring Green, near Clacton, and driving towards a friend’s address in Diss.

In 2014, she received a 12-month disqualification for driving with 56mcg of alcohol in breath.

A probation report said Fairley was taking steps to address issues with alcohol, which she had consumed under the pressure of exam revision and following a stressful exchange earlier in the day.

Howard Catherall, mitigating, asked magistrates to deal with the offences by way of a punitive, yet rehabilitative community penalty, taking into account Fairley’s full co-operation with police and her earliest possible guilty plea.

She was banned for 40 months, fined £200 and handed a 12-month community order, with 150 hours of unpaid work and 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirement

Harris, also 23, of Green Hill, Coddenham, was banned for 28 months and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work for driving with 92mcg of alcohol in breath.