Solicitor banned from road for THIRD time after being caught drink-driving twice in five weeks

Published: 13:22, 21 August 2026 | Updated: 13:27, 21 August 2026 An experienced solicitor who specialises in motoring law has been banned from driving for a third time after being caught drunk behind the wheel twice in five weeks. Magistrates were told Helen Dugdale’s latest offence, earlier this month, was the fourth time she had been caught drink-driving since 2013. The 57-year-old admitted driving her VW Tiguan whilst almost three times the limit, in Liverpool, on August 11. Dugdale, who defends motorists charged with driving offences in the Merseyside area, also pleaded guilty to driving the same vehicle while intoxicated in the city on July 6. Police who stopped her conducted a breathalyser test and found she had 57mgs of alcohol in her system per 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mgs. When she was stopped again, five weeks later, the reading was 95mgs of alcohol in her breath. Prosecutor George Shelley told Carlisle Magistrates Court that both times police were alerted by members of the public who were concerned about her erratic driving. ‘On both occasions members of the public reported the manner of her driving to police,’ Mr Shelley said. Helen Dugdale, 57, pictured arriving at Carlisle Magistrates Court, was temporarily banned from driving after admitting drink-driving twice in five weeks ‘On the latter occasion there was a passenger in her vehicle.’ Oliver Saddington, defending, told the court that Dugdale was seeking a psychological report and asked for an adjournment for pre-sentence reports to be completed. Julia Evans, chair of the bench, granted the adjournment but also temporarily banned Dugdale from the road and warned her she could be jailed if she flouted the ban.  She will be sentenced on October 8. ‘You cannot drive any motor vehicle on any road used by the public from this moment,’ Ms Evans said. ‘If you drive whilst disqualified that will be a serious offence and you could be sent to prison.’ In September 2017, Dugdale was given a three-year driving ban and fined £650 after admitting her then second drink-driving offence. She had been spotted by a taxi driver ‘zig-zagging’ in her Honda Jazz on a busy road in Birkenhead, Merseyside, on June 29, before crashing into a kerb. The lawyer was later found ‘slumped in the seat’, unable to hold her head up, and slurring. Prosecutors said the road was busy with pedestrians at the time and it was lucky no one was hit by her car. Dugdale was arrested and taken to a police station where a breath test revealed she was nearly twice the legal limit. She claimed her behaviour was a result of years of litigation following the collapse of her partnership, which had left her £60,000 in debt, and revealed she was undergoing treatment for depression. Dugdale, of Speke, Liverpool, was fined £15,000 by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) the following October, as a consequence. Her first drink-driving conviction, when she was caught driving while twice the legal limit, in October 2013, also resulted in an 18-month ban.