A DOCTOR jailed for causing the death of an author in a drunken road crash has been caught drink driving again.

Elizabeth Crabbie - whose husband Colin was a Conservative councillor - faces being sent back to prison after being caught drunk at the wheel.

The former GP was found to be more than twice the legal limit in a Subaru Impreza near her Perthshire home on July 26 last year.

Yesterdayat Perth Sheriff Court, the 68-year-old admitted driving with excess alcohol in Drummond Street, Comrie, and on the A85 Comrie to Crieff road.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis banned Crabbie from driving on an interim basis and deferred sentence for the preparation of reports until next month.

Crabbie was previously jailed for five years at the High Court after causing a fatal crash by driving while she was three times over the drink drive limit.

She was also banned from driving for 10 years at the High Court in Edinburgh in April 2000 after she admitted causing the death of children's author Graeme Cook.

Presiding Judge, Lord Milligan, said at the time that her "utterly irresponsible conduct" had led to "the life of a totally innocent person being taken away".

He told Crabbie he had taken her background and standing in the community into account but had no option but to jail her because of the gravity of the offence.

He said he would be "totally failing in my public duty if I did not impose a sentence of imprisonment ... that is of sufficient length to mark this as a particularly bad case."

Writer Graeme Cook died instantly from multiple injuries when Crabbie, who the court heard was driving on the wrong side of the busy main road between Perth and Forfar at the time of the accident, ploughed into his Peugeot in her Subaru.

After the accident, in which Mr Cook's wife and 12-year-old son were also injured, tests revealed Crabbie had 249 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood - more than three times the then 80 mg limit.

Dr Crabbie was a senior partner at Comrie Health Centre, Comrie, Perthshire, at the time of the accident and was married to former Perth and Kinross Tory councillor Colin Crabbie. He was with her at court yesterday.