A SECONDARY school teacher was caught drink driving for the third time in eight years after police received a telephone tip-off.

Blackburn magistrates heard the officers outside Lesley Patricia Dulling's home found her to have nearly twice the legal limit in her breath.

But the court was told she had gone through a period of her life which had been extremely traumatic and tragic.

Dulling, 47, of Quebec Road, Blackburn, pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol. She was made subject to a community rehabilitation order for 12 months, with a condition that she attends the Drink Impaired Driving Programme.

She was also disqualified from driving for three years and ordered to pay £65 costs.

The court was told the Dulling was an English and drama teacher at a Burnley high school. After the case, a Lancashire County Council spokesman said: "We cannot comment on individual cases of this nature. However, we have procedures in place to safeguard the welfare of all our pupils.

"We will offer the governing body the best advice and support available in whatever action they consider necessary."

Eddie Harrison, prosecuting, said police received a call at 7.30pm on October 20, and at 7.45pm stopped Dulling as she drove in Quebec Road.

An officer asked if she had been drinking she said: "I've only had a couple of pints at the Bulls Head."

Louise Voce, defending, said her client had been married twice and both had ended in extremely unhappy circumstances.

She said Dulling suffered from depression after the first marriage failed and had a three-year period where she remembered very little about what happened to her. She was prescribed anti-depressants, which she was still taking, the court was told.

"She finally managed to pull herself together and met a new partner and they married," said Miss Voce. "They had only been married for two weeks when he was diagnosed as having cancer.

"She had just had a little boy who is now five years old. Her husband was ill for about 18 months before he died approximately three years ago.

"Since then she has devoted all her energies to her little boy. It has been just the two of them and she can't believe that she has put herself in this position," said Miss Voce. "She believed she was going to be well under the limit."

Dulling had previous convictions for driving with excess alcohol in 1995 and 1998, the court was told.