Veteran Corrie actress gets one-year road ban following drink-driving offence

Coronation Street actress Barbara Knox has been banned from the wheel for one year after she admitted drink-driving.

The 81-year-old, who plays Rita Tanner in the ITV soap, was caught over the limit after she drove to a police station to see her daughter who an hour earlier had been stopped for the same offence when the actress was a passenger.

Knox, of Mere, Cheshire, was given “firm advice” not to get back into her car when officers at Knutsford police station noted she appeared to be intoxicated. She was said to have been offered a lift home but declined and was seen get into a Jaguar at a supermarket car park.

The court heard she reversed the car a short distance before she was stopped by police.

Knox gave a sample of blood which gave an alcohol reading of 85 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood — the legal limit is 80.

The actress, represented by solicitor Nick “Mr Loophole” Freeman, had previously denied the offence last April and was due to go on trial next month.

At a previous hearing last year, it was said by Mr Freeman that Knox claimed she was “physically manhandled” by officers before she was charged.

It was said on her behalf yesterday that she “bitterly regrets” the offence.

Knox was also today fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £1,750 costs and a £120 victim surcharge.