AN EMPLOYEE of a County Durham college has been banned from the wheel after admitting to drink driving.

Helen Slee, who works for Bishop Auckland College, was found to be over the legal alcohol limit when police breath-tested her on Wednesday, May 3.

The 41-year-old, of Beckwith Close, Kirk Merrington, was parked at the side of Merrington Heights, in the village, at 7.50am.

Andrew Clinton, mitigating at Newton Aycliffe Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (May 18), said the mother-of-two was going through a divorce and consumed alcohol the night before following a row with her husband.

He told the court the defendant claimed she had been woken by her husband the next morning and decided to “get out the house and go to work”.

Magistrates heard she alleged her husband had let her tyre down, followed her and made a call to police after seeing she had stopped.

Slee, who according to LinkedIn works as a tutor at Bishop Auckland College, pleaded guilty to driving over the limit.

Chairman of the bench Bill Unsworth said: “It’s a high reading for a morning after.”

She was fined £290 and ordered to pay £85 prosecution costs and a £30 victim surcharge.

Slee was also disqualified from driving for 16 months and was offered the chance to complete a drink driver’s rehabilitation course which would reduce the length of her ban.