A MOTHER admitted breaking the law as she made a mercy dash to a hospital in a bid to be at her daughter's bedside.

Sharon Fitzgerald pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and without insurance when she appeared before Bishop Auckland Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Fitzgerald said she "did as any other mother would" by jumping in a van to follow the ambulance carrying her teenage daughter to hospital, despite knowing that she was banned for driving until next March.

The 39-year-old had been walking to her home in The Crescent, High Etherley, near Bishop Auckland, last Tuesday when she saw an ambulance leave the estate, the court heard.

When she entered her house she found a pool of blood on the floor and feared for the life of her 17-year-old daughter Donna, who had given birth to a girl three weeks earlier.

Lynn Simpson, defending, said: "Mrs Fitzgerald was frightened as Donna had a difficult pregnancy and suffered with thrombosis, which her own mother had died of in her twenties after giving birth.

"She said she did as any mother would and with no other means of getting to hospital to be with Donna drove towards Bishop Auckland General Hospital, where she thought Donna was being taken.

"Police stopped her at Tindale Crescent and hearing the explanation radioed to control and found that Donna was at Darlington Memorial Hospital and made arrangements to get Mrs Fitzgerald to her.

"The next day she went herself to the police station to answer the charges."

The court heard that on March 19 this year, Fitzgerald had been banned from driving for 12 months.

Magistrates gave Fitzgerald a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered her to pay £34 costs.