A DRUG addict's erratic driving on the M5 motorway at night frightened a motorist into phoning police to stop her car.

Elaine Pritchard chan-ged lanes without warning, drove onto the hard shoulder and almost collided with the central reservation.

She was shadowed for more than 12 miles by a driver before being pulled up on the M42 slip road, Worcester Crown Court heard.

Pritchard was found to be incoherent and confused, acting as though in a daze, said Paul Whitfield, prosecuting.

She claimed her drink had been spiked at a party in Birmingham.

Pritchard, 33, of Michael Crescent, Malvern, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and driving uninsured.

She was given a three-month jail term suspended for two years, banned for three years and ordered to take a re-test, and given an 18 month community order, including drug rehabilitation.

Pritchard was a heroin addict when she tried to drive home on July 8.

Defence counsel Abigail Nixon said Pritchard was embarrassed by her actions but was intelligent and was now taking prescription drugs to keep her off heroin.