Good thing she's not in Qatar

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A woman so terrified of driving that she drove along a motorway at under 10mph was banned from the road for a week yesterday and told she must retake her test.

Stephanie Cole, 57, from Bristol, had been seeing her GP for "fear of driving" when she was caught dawdling between the hard shoulder and slow lane of the M32 with a sign on the back of her people carrier reading: "I do not drive fast, please overtake."

When officers stopped Cole on August 30 last year, she told them she had "no confidence" on the motorway and that she had only ended up on it "by accident". She later told reporters the M32 was her "nemesis" and that she was relieved to see the blue flashing lights of the patrol car.

North Avon magistrates heard that the wheelchair-user MS sufferer needed her car to cope with her condition. Cole, who had pleaded guilty to driving without reasonable consideration, was also given a three-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay court costs of £35.

She told the court that she had been treated by her GP for "fear of driving" for 3½ years. She got lost one afternoon last August and ended up on the motorway. Officers followed her as she drove at speeds of less than 10mph, braking repeatedly.

Dawn Killick, chair of the bench, said the ban was imposed because the magistrates had serious concerns about her driving ability, her safety and the safety of other road users.

Before yesterday's hearing, Cole, a former station assistant at BBC Radio Nottingham who has suffered from MS for 25 years, said: "No driving licence for me means I will have no life. I live alone and I am fiercely independent. Losing my licence will leave me with no social life."

As she was taken out of court in her wheelchair yesterday, she said: "A seven-day ban is seven days too long. I am disappointed but I will be back driving again." But not, she added, on the motorway.