AN off-duty police officer tracked a solicitor for 30 minutes as she drove round a traffic island three times, swerved across the road and headed through Derbyshire at 20mph with her hazard lights flashing.
Southern Derbyshire Magistrates' Court was told that Danielle Owens had drunk so much she was more than four times the legal driving limit.
The court heard she had suffered "a complete emotional breakdown" while preparing a statement for an inquest on her child.
The hearing was told Owens was spotted by the officer on the A42 as he drove to his night shift at Swadlincote police station.
Lynn Manning, prosecuting, said: "Several vehicles were having to brake to avoid colliding with the defendant's car which was driving slowly down the A42 displaying its hazard lights and swerving between lanes one and two.
"The officer alerted the control room and began to follow the car which took the slip road and headed towards Swadlincote on the A511.
"During the journey, he was relaying what was happening to the control room telling them the car was swerving and going on to the opposite side of the road."
Miss Manning said Owen's car was finally stopped in Ticknall by the police and, when she got out, she was "visibly very upset".
She said officers noted that Owens, of Cirrus Drive, Watnall, near Nottingham, had slurred speech, glazed eyes and they could smell alcohol on her breath.
The offence took place on September 8, with the officer first noticing Owens' erratic driving at 10.30pm.
A reading, taken at the police station at 12.30am, revealed that the 37-year-old had 146 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.
Steve Williams, for Owens, told the hearing: "This is truly an exceptional case. She is a solicitor and, on the night this took place, had been preparing a statement for an inquest into the death of her child.
"She believes she had a complete emotional breakdown that night and she drank so much to get through it. She does not know what happened, she will resign from her work."
Owens pleaded guilty to drink-driving. She was given a 12-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, banned from driving for three years, handed a 12-month supervision order and 60 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.
Magistrate Stephen Upcraft said: "Your breath reading of 146 was almost unimaginable."
