A WOMAN driver from Bradford on Avon who was seen by a terrified fellow motorist swerving all over the road for a number of miles has been banned from driving and ordered to retake her driving test.

Rebecca Mary Doel, 61, of Elmfield, appeared before magistrates in Swindon on Tuesday and admitted driving her Citroen C2 without due care and attention between Semington and Hilperton in December 2016.

She was accompanied in the court by her brother-in-law, Mr Courage, as a McKenzie friend, someone who does not have to be legally qualified but who can help a person representing themselves in court.

The police prosecutor told the magistrates that at 6.45pm on December 16 motorist Christopher Poole was driving behind Miss Doel on the A361.

He saw her swerve to the left, hit the kerb and continue driving. She then swerved to the right into the path of a truck, then swerved left and avoided the truck.

She then started to turn left but then swerved right across a traffic island and into the village of Hilperton, through which she continued swerving all over the road, the prosecutor said.

At the Old Bear in Hilperton she went straight on at a left-hand bend and into a hedge. She then turned towards Bradford on Avon and had to swerve to avoid a police car, which then stopped her vehicle.

Mr Poole was visibly shaken, the prosecutor said, and was terrified that Miss Doel was going to kill either herself or someone else with her poor standard of driving.

Chairman of magistrates Amanda Lee asked Doel what she had to say in her defence.

Doel replied that she had left rather late to go to put flowers on a friend’s grave.

“There was patchy fog on and off on the way home which is perhaps why I was rather erratic,” she replied, adding that the fog was quite dense in places.

Mr Courage told the magistrates that there had been other incidents of Doel’s poor driving which had ended in court and he was surprised that an eye test or a re-test of her driving had not been ordered.

The chairman disqualified Doel from driving for six months for driving without due care and attention and ordered that she apply to the DVLA to retake the driving test before she could drive again.

She was fined £100 and ordered to pay court costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £30.