SOLICITOR Deborah Mills ended up on the wrong side of the law by drinking and driving after finding out her sister had terminal cancer, a court heard.

Mother-of-two Mills, of Aylesbury Road, Monks Risborough, hung her head in shame as she pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol at High Wycombe Magistrates Court last Friday.

The court heard how the 35-year-old had faced an onslaught of personal tragedies which had contributed to the 'massive error in judgement' which led her to drink and drive on the evening of January 26.

Prosecutor Balbir Seyan said that Mills had been driving from Marlow to her home when she smashed into railings in Abbey Way, High Wycombe, outside Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College.

A police breath test showed Mills was more than twice over the legal drink-drive limit with a reading of 86 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Robert Borwick said in mitigation that everything had gone from bad to worse for Mills since October last year when she had suffered from domestic problems. He said she found out her sister had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and did not have long to live.

Mr Borwick added that Mills suffered a difficult childhood and had no contact with her parents and that the corporate firm she had set up in Marlow had been 'thrown into chaos since her sister's illness'.

The court heard how both her sister and brother-in-law had worked at the firm but could no longer spend time there because of the diagnosis and a senior partner had also left.

He added that the day she had been out drinking, she had been out for a business lunch with clients in Marlow and had a couple of glasses of wine. He added: "She took a phone call from her brother-in-law who said her sister was not responding to treatment and had deteriorated."

Mills was then taken to a pub in Marlow by one of her clients where she had three large glasses of wine but then decided to drive home. She skidded on ice, he said.

She was fined £1,000, disqualified for 24 months and ordered to pay £55 costs.