RESTAURANT manager Sally Ann McCreadie's traumatic weekend, during which a love affair ended, an exotic holiday had to be cancelled and a friend attempted suicide, led to her arrest for drink-driving, a court heard yesterday.

Harrogate magistrates heard that, when police pulled over 41-year-old McCreadie in Springfield Avenue, Harrogate, in the early hours of Monday, December 19, tests showed she had drunk more than one-and-a-half-times the legal alcohol limit.

McCreadie, of Willow Grove, Harrogate, pleaded guilty to drink-driving.

Christopher Newton, in mitigtion, said her arrest followed a traumatic weekend.

First a relationship had ended, and then a two-week trip to Thailand had to be called off.

Later, McCreadie had learned that one of her friends had attempted to kill herself.

Mr Newton said that, although McCreadie had turned in for work on the Saturday, she had been so upset she had been sent home.

She ate nothing that day or the next and went to visit a friend. She had two glasses of wine and was offered a bed for the night, but declined as her daughter was due to arrive home on Monday morning.

She was pulled over on her way home.

Mr Newton said: ''She feels as though she has let everybody down at the restaurant because of the nature of the business - and let herself down too, as she feels particularly strongly about those who drink and drive."

McCreadie was fined £400 with £50 costs and was banned from driving for a year.