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Coronation Street star Barbara Knox admits drink-drive charge | Coronation Street star Barbara Knox admits drink-drive charge |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Coronation Street actress Barbara Knox has been banned from driving for a year after admitting a drink-drive charge. | Coronation Street actress Barbara Knox has been banned from driving for a year after admitting a drink-drive charge. |
Knox, 81, who plays Rita Tanner in the ITV soap, was charged after being held at a police station in Knutsford, Cheshire, in March last year. | |
She had gone to the station near her home after her daughter was arrested on suspicion of the same offence. | |
Last April, Knox denied the charge, but changed her plea as she was due to be tried at Crewe Magistrates' Court. | Last April, Knox denied the charge, but changed her plea as she was due to be tried at Crewe Magistrates' Court. |
As well as a driving ban the defendant, who was appointed an MBE in 2010, was fined £3000 and ordered to pay costs of £1750. | |
'Author of misfortune' | |
The court heard that because she had been drinking, she was told by police not drive on arriving at the station to see her daughter on 10 March, but she had ignored their advice. | |
Following her subsequent arrest, a blood test showed she had 85mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 80mg. | |
As she sentenced her, Judge Brigid Knight told Knox her original not guilty plea had wasted court time and money. | |
Knox's lawyer Nick Freeman accepted the actress was "the author of her own misfortune". | |
He said his client "considers drink-driving to be serious" and had not sought to justify her actions. | |
Family gathering | |
Knox's daughter Maxine Ashcroft, was banned from driving for two years after she was found to be nearly three times the legal limit. | |
Tests showed Ashcroft, of Kencot, Lechlade, Gloucestershire, had 97 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of breath - 35 mg is the legal limit. | |
She had been stopped by police while driving a relative home from a family gathering in Alderley Edge, Cheshire. | |
Her mother went to the police station to visit her before she was arrested herself. | |
Coronation Street said it would not be commenting on the case as it was a "private and personal matter". |