A SUSPECTED drink driver told officers she had swallowed some beads, explaining why she felt the need to be sick.

But a lengthy detour to the hospital for an x-ray showed the Bristol woman, who had been drinking at a Swindon friend’s house, was telling tall tales.

And, as she was being booked into the police station, she even claimed she would skip the country if officers bailed her.

Swindon magistrates heard Nicole Jackson, 28, of Holmes Hill Road, had turned to drink as a way of managing her mental health.

When she was stopped by officers driving along Oxford Road at around 2.30am on Saturday, April 6, she was on medication.

Defending, Jonathan Lewis said: “Whatever she did consume at her friend’s house was amplified by the antibiotics were on.”

Police had stopped her after noticing her drift car over the white lines in the middle of the road. They breathalysed her, with the kit logging a reading of 69 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Jackson was taken back to Gablecross police station. It was then she started to become “belligerent and abusive," prosecutor Keith Ballinger said.

She tried to make herself sick, claiming she had swallowed some beads.

Officers took her to hospital for an x-ray, which unmasked the claims.

And asked why Jackson, a woman previously of good character, appeared in the dock straight from the police station cells rather than summoned to court at a later date Mr Ballinger said: “During the booking in procedure on a number of occasions she told the police staff she intended to leave the country for a number of years once released.”

Mr Lewis said his client’s claims were wrong: “It wasn’t intended to create the impression she was going to abscond. It was something flippantly said, but it wasn’t something she meant.”

Jackson pleaded guilty to failing to provide a specimen of breath for analysis.

Magistrates were told that Jackson, who has not previously been in trouble with police, had been diagnosed with depression.

She had begun drinking alcohol almost daily as a result of her low mood. A former tele-saleswoman, she was keen to return to work or apply for university.

She was described as very remorseful for her actions. Sitting in the dock, she could be seen dabbing her eyes.

Magistrates sentenced her to a six month community order, with 10 rehabilitation days.

She was fined £50, ordered to pay an £85 victim surcharge and banned from driving for 17 months.

As she left the dock Jackson thanked JPs, adding: “I’m sorry.”