A SWINDON woman with a history of drink-drive offences over 10 years has finally admitted to herself that she has an alcohol problem and sought treatment.

Claire Amy Mangan, 41, of Arnell Crescent, pleaded guilty before the town’s magistrates on Friday to driving with a breath/alcohol level of 72 microgrammes on March 1 this year. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Vyvyan Thatcher, prosecuting, told the bench that at 4.15pm police officers on patrol saw Mangan’s Ford Fusion come very close to a collision in William Morris Way.

When the officers stopped her car they smelled alcohol and there were two children, aged three and four, in the back.

She failed a roadside breath test and was taken to the police station where a test on a recognised device registered a level of 72mcg.

Mr Thatcher said Mangan had committed similar offences in 2006 and 2008 and the court heard that she had been banned from driving for five years when she appeared before the bench in March this year, also for drink-driving, when her breath/alcohol level had been recorded at 136 microgrammes.

Mangan, defending herself, told the magistrates on Friday she had had a very difficult few years and in the last two years had lost her hearing and lost her job as a result.

In March she pleaded not guilty to the current charge because she was in denial and could not believe the reading was so high.

She had since recognised, however, that she did have a problem and had changed her plea to guilty.

She had been attending group sessions, counselling and therapy and was receiving help from CGL, Swindon’s drug and alcohol service, as well as through the Nelson’s Women’s Trust and had been given medication to take if she felt in need of a drink.

Mangan said that generally things now seemed much better and she had not been drinking.

The probation service confirmed that Mangan had been doing well and regular breath tests revealed she was hardly drinking.

She was disqualified from driving for 36 months, to run concurrently with her five-year ban, fined £198 and ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £30.