BROADCASTER Gabby Logan has confessed to regular encounters with the police during her North-East student days – all because of her old banger car.

The BBC sports presenter, who graduated from Durham with a law degree in 1995, was back at her old university today (Wednesday, June 24) to receive an honorary doctorate.

Asked about her student days, she said she was often stopped during nights out by police, but only because her car was struggling to make it up the A1 climb at Washington.

“I didn’t really develop a taste for alcohol at university,” the 42-year-old former international gymnast said.

“So I was the designated driver, taking all my friends up to Newcastle. The police would stop me and I’d say: ‘Don’t worry, I’m going to make it’. They’d say: ‘Oh, it’s her again’.”

Mrs Logan said she had a wonderful experience at Durham and was thrilled to back and being made an honorary doctor of civil law.

“It was a nostalgic experience,” she said, having collected her doctorate from university chancellor and opera star Sir Thomas Allen at Durham Cathedral.

“I’m incredibly proud to say I graduated from Durham University. It’s a very special part of the world.”

The Leeds-born presenter, whose father Terry Yorath was a footballer and football manager and whose husband Kenny played international rugby, revealed she “cried and cried” as, having started her career in North-East commercial radio, she drove south to start work at Sky Sports.

“I thought I’d never life somewhere so beautiful again,” she said.

“I’m amazed how many of the people I meet have never been north of Watford Gap. I tell them to get out and see the country.

“I was from a very average state school in Leeds and there were lots of kids (at Durham University) from public schools. It was a real mix and it gave us all more confidence – that we’d earned the right to be here.”

Thousands of students are graduating from Durham at ceremonies throughout this week. Also being given honorary degrees are South African theoretical physicist Professor Ahmed Cassim Bawa and business leader and coach Dr Peter Shaw.