A medical technician at RAF Lakenheath who was nearly three times the limit for alcohol when she was caught behind the wheel in Bury St Edmunds has been banned from driving for two years.

A member of the public called the police after the wing mirror of his parked car had been clipped in Eastgate Street on June 11 around 6.30pm, Suffolk Magistrates' Court heard.

The witness saw the Honda Accord responsible and followed the car before it stopped at traffic lights on Barton Road, Colette Harper, prosecuting, told magistrates.

The man got out of his vehicle and approached the driver, 22-year-old United States Air Force (USAF) servicewoman Kierra Reed, who was the only person in the car.

The police attended and Reed then failed a roadside breath test, and was arrested and taken to the police station.

Further checks revealed she had no insurance and no MOT on the vehicle, Mrs Harper said.

In custody, Reed blew 100 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg in 100ml of breath.

Reed, of The Manor, Herringswell, Bury St Edmunds, had no previous convictions.

On Tuesday, she pleaded guilty to drink-driving, driving without insurance and driving without a valid test certificate.

David Allan, mitigating, said Reed had been out drinking with friends on the day in question and "had plainly drunk far too much".

He said she was entirely cooperative with officers at the scene and at the police station.

Mr Allan added that the insurance offence was down to "simple inadvertence".

He said Reed previously had insurance on standing order and assumed it was an auto-renewal but that was not the case.

Reed is around halfway through a three-year deployment with the USAF at Lakenheath, and the base has already taken away her US driving licence, Mr Allan added.

Magistrates handed Reed a two-year driving ban and fined her £750 for drink-driving.

No separate penalty was imposed for the no insurance and no MOT offences.

Reed was also ordered to pay £105 in court costs and a victim surcharge of £75.

She was offered the opportunity to take a drink-drive rehabilitation course by magistrates, which will reduce her ban by 24 weeks if completed.