Driver caught behind wheel of Jaguar just THREE DAYS into drink drive ban

Coral Adams had been told by a court she was not to drive again until she had served her 20-month ban for driving over the limit.

But on Friday, May 24, as the bank holiday weekend got under way, the 26-year-old was pulled over by police on Moor Lane during a random check.

South Tyneside Magistrates’ Court was told by prosecutor Claire Irving that Adams was the only person in the Jaguar X Type and instantly told the officer she had been banned three days earlier.

Adams, of Lizard Lane in South Shields, admitted the charges of driving while disqualified and without insurance.

Valerie Bell, mitigating, said: “She was disqualified on May 21 and in the car three days later, there’s no getting away from that.

“There’s no suggestion of great harm or distance and there’s no indication of bad driving.

“This does not amount to a defence, but the circumstances by way of mitigation are that there was a certain amount of pressure put on her by the owner of the car, a ‘friend’ – and I put friend in inverted comas.

“He needed somebody to move it and he couldn’t do it himself because he had to wait in for someone else and asked her repeatedly.

“She volunteered she was disqualified from driving and fully accepts what happened.”

A report by the probation service to the court said she has recently started a job at a call centre in Boldon and largely spends time with her family, but admitted she needed to learn to say no to friends who put her in difficult situations.

For driving while disqualified, chairman of the bench Lorraine Montgomery told her she would serve a further six months on top of her ban, ordered her to serve a 12-month community order and complete 100 hours of unpaid work.

She was also ordered to pay £85 in court costs, an £85 victim surcharge and was given no further penalty for driving without insurance.