SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A woman banned from driving by the court pleaded guilty Tuesday to breaking that order, but she said she did it to prevent her friend from driving home drunk.

"I'd just like to apologize to the court," Patricia Van Loon said before she was fined $2,000 and given an 18-month driving ban that will come into effect after her current driving ban is over, in about nine months.

She had been given a 12-month driving prohibition on Aug. 1 for a charge of drunk driving from this past June. Defence lawyer Dan Rideout told the court Van Loon had afterwards lent her car to a friend.

On Sept. 30 another friend phoned her and said the person she'd lent her car to was drinking at the Monkey Tree and intended to drive the vehicle home.

Rideout said Van Loon and a friend went to the Monkey Tree and picked up the vehicle, intending for her friend to drive it. The friend had trouble working the standard transmission and repeatedly stalled the car, so Van Loon took the wheel to drive it home and was pulled over by the police who recognized her as someone who shouldn't be driving.

Judge Robert Gorin asked if Crown prosecutor Mathieu St. Germain wanted to dispute what Rideout had said, which he did not, and then told the woman that he believed her - though that didn't change the fact she broke the law.

"The real punishment here is the driving ban," said Gorin.

As well, Van Loon was given one day in custody, but that was considered served by her being in court that day.

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