A CONVICTED drink-driver who was disqualified from the roads found herself hauled before the courts just hours after she flouted both her ban and the coronavirus lockdown.

Mother-of-one Carly Prosser was condemned as she appeared from custody at Newport Magistrates’ Court following her arrest for picking up friends in her uninsured car at 1am.

Prosecutor Mike Williams told Judge David Parsons: “She showed a total disregard for the advice given by the government.”

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He was referring to the UK’s police-enforced lockdown with drastic new measures enforced in the fight against the devastating coronavirus outbreak.

On Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people only to leave their homes under a list of "very limited purposes", banned public gatherings of more than two people and ordered the closure of non-essential shops.

Every citizen must comply with these new measures and the relevant authorities, including the police, are being given the powers to enforce them through fines and dispersing gatherings.

Mr Williams said Prosser, who was disqualified for 39 months for drink-driving in 2017, was spotted at a petrol station in Pengam, Blackwood, in the early hours of yesterday morning.

He told the court that officers ran a check on the Police National Computer and found that the defendant’s Peugeot car was uninsured.

Mr Williams added: “She told them she was a disqualified driver and that she was banned until November 2020.

“The defendant said she was driving the vehicle to pick up friends.”

Prosser, 30, of Highfield Crescent, Aberbargoed, who the court was told receives universal credit, pleaded guilty to driving whilst disqualified and driving without insurance.

Frank Whittle, mitigating, said his client had worked as a painter and decorator and had suffered with drug problems.

He told the court the defendant’s mother, who was in court, was “very supportive” and was helping her daughter try and beat her addiction.

Judge Parsons sentenced Prosser to an eight-week electronically monitored curfew.

She is forbidden from leaving her home between 7pm and 6am.

The defendant was also banned from driving for a further 12 months and she was fined £100 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £92 surcharge.

The judge warned her that if she breaks her curfew or drives whilst disqualified again: “I will send you to prison.”