A woman has had her 12-month drink-driving disqualification overturned because she drove her car to escape a sexual assault.

She was found guilty – her second conviction – and banned from driving. That was later overturned on appeal by a judge convinced she had driven in a state of panic.

The woman's breath test returned a result of 1093 micrograms per litre of breath – the limit is 400.

Because victims of sexual assault have automatic name suppression, the Sunday Star-Times cannot name her.

The level of breath-alcohol was higher than that of one of the country's worst drink-drivers, Richard Steven Rowe, 46, who earlier this year picked up his 14th conviction by blowing 1039.

The woman was drinking at her deceased parents' home in West Auckland earlier this year after working on the property with family members.

She had planned to stay the night and consumed "quite a few beers".

After going to bed at about 10pm, she was woken by a family member assaulting her, and she got out of bed, dressed, got in her car and drove off.

But on Te Atatu Rd she sideswiped a parked car, lost control of her vehicle and crashed over the footpath.

When police arrived shortly after, she admitted drinking but did not tell them about the indecent assault.

She did, however, tell a friend who came to assist her, and later told her daughter. Both corroborated the woman's story.

In sentencing her to 100 hours community service and a 12-month disqualification from driving, Judge Thomas Everitt noted that while the events were "unsavoury to say the least" there was no reason to drive.

He also said her evidence of the assault was "rather vague".

"There is nothing in her affidavit to indicate why she just did not leave the house, go down the street, go next door, go somewhere, wake one of the other persons in the house, call for help, whatever...

"The public interest must take precedence over [the woman's] drunken inability to recollect, or whatever was going on once she was awoken.

"To drive whilst drunk at that level, 1093 micrograms, puts the public in danger. How many times in recent days have we seen drunks killing people on the roads? No doubt they had their own reasons to be driving."

The woman appealed the sentence, but not the conviction, and this month Auckland High Court Judge Paul Heath set aside the 12-month disqualification, but increased the community service sentence from 100 to 300 hours.

Judge Heath upheld her appeal on the grounds the assault would have been traumatic, that she complied with a previous disqualification and because the 12-month disqualification would have had a significant financial impact.

"I have no doubt that she reacted to the alleged indecent assault intuitively and with a sense of panic. It should not be held against her, for the purpose of [legal] discretion, that her decision was irrational."

THE ONES THAT GOT AWAY

April 2010: Sergeant Jason Lamont is discharged without conviction for drink-driving, but disqualified from driving for six months and ordered to pay court costs after the North Shore District Court judge says it was not in the public interest for an experienced officer to lose his job.

January 2010: Aircraft engineer Benjamin Fransham, 22, is discharged without conviction for drink-driving, but fined $750 and disqualified from driving for six months, after the Invercargill District Court judge agrees that Fransham's career would suffer due to civil aviation laws.

September 2006: Sole Mokau police officer Jonathan Erwood is discharged without conviction in the New Plymouth District Court after being arrested for drink driving when he attended a fatal road crash after drinking on his day off.