A WAITRESS who drank-drove a friend from one part of Yarmouth to another, was slammed by an Island magistrate for "gambling with other people's lives" by making the short journey over the limit.

Erin Hucklesby, 21, admitted drink-driving, just feet from her home in South Street, Yarmouth, just before midnight on Christmas Eve, where police arrested her.

Police initially stopped Hucklesby for having a defective headlight, said Liz Miller, prosecuting, at the Isle of Wight Magistrates' Court, on Tuesday.

Hucklesby, with no previous convictions, was breath-tested Newport Police Station and gave a reading of 52 microgrammes. The legal drink-drive limit is 35.

For Hucklesby, Henry Farley said his client was full of remorse for her actions that night.

"This seems to me to be a miscalculation, brought about either by naivety or inexperience," Mr Farley said.

"It was Christmas Eve, it was late, she went out and had a glass of wine and gave a friend a lift — and felt absolutely fine.

"She drove her friend from one point in Yarmouth to another, drove home and was stopped outside her house.

"She wasn't driving around the Island in a devil-may-care sort of way."

Hucklesby was disqualified from driving for 16 months and fined £120, with £85 costs and a £34 victim surcharge.

When sentencing Hucklesby, presiding magistrate, Carol Trueman, said: "You didn't drive very far. We are not sympathetic to that because if it wasn't very far, the person you drove should have walked.

"There really is no excuse at all to gamble with people's lives by drink-driving."