A 75-YEAR-OLD woman is banned from the road today after crashing her Cherokee Jeep while more than twice the legal drink-drive limit.

Colin Adwent

A 75-YEAR-OLD woman is banned from the road today after crashing her Cherokee Jeep while more than twice the legal drink-drive limit.

Georgina Burgin, of Gibraltar Road, Otley, near Ipswich, blamed a startled rabbit for causing the accident, which left her trapped in the vehicle after it went into a ditch.

Burgin pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol when she appeared before Ipswich magistrates yesterday .

Lesla Small, prosecuting, told the court that police received a phone call at 9.10am on Sunday, March 29, to the High Road at Swilland where a jeep had crashed.

When officers arrived they found Burgin unable to get out of the vehicle and had to send for firefighters to rescue her.

The pensioner, who was uninjured, was the only person inside the jeep at the time of the crash.

The court heard police gave Burgin a roadside breath test, which indicated a positive reading.

She was then breathalysed at a police station where the reading was 74 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcgs.

Burgin had been on her way to her job as a cleaner at the Moon and Mushroom public house in Swilland, where she works for six hours a week, when the crash occurred.

Ms Small said Burgin had been drinking wine late into the night, before getting up to drive to work.

Burgin, who represented herself, told South East Suffolk Magistrates Court that she came round a bend in High Road when she saw a rabbit which darted in front of her.

This caused her to lose control of her V registration Cherokee Jeep, which led to the vehicle leaving the road.

She said she went to bed at 1.30am on March 29, but with the clocks going forward that night, effectively it was an hour later.

District Judge David Cooper disqualified Burgin from driving for 18 months.

He also fined her �200, and ordered her to pay �65 costs and a �15 victim surcharge.