Shotton: Woman who crashed into a parked car on Wednesday morning was 4 times of over the drink drive limit

A Shotton woman who crashed her car into a parked vehicle on Wednesday was found to be four times over the drink drive limit.

Elaine Keys, 54, told officers she couldn’t remember how much vodka she had drunk the previous night, and that she had been unexpectedly called out to her job as a carer in Cheshire reports The Leader Newspaper 

Keys, of Woodlands Road, Shotton, who has a conviction for a previous similar offence, got into her car on the Wednesday morning (4th December) and proceeded to drive into stationary vehicle in nearby Plymouth Street,Shotton at about 9.30am

Mold Magistrates Court was told she’d admitted driving with excess alcohol and heard how she was found to have 146 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of her breath, the legal limit is 35 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath, meaning that she was four times over the limit.

Phillip Lloyd Jones, defending, said Keys had been drinking vodka the night before with a friend and there was an element of binge drinking.

He said she did not normally drink vodka and would not have drunk so much but was due to be off the following day however, she received a call to go in to work and instead of explaining the position to her employer, decided to drive.

Mr Lloyd Jones told the Mold court his client’s drinking had increased recently, she drank when she was under emotional pressure and was under more stress at this time of the year.

Eight years ago, just before Christmas, her younger brother had been murdered and she was at a low ebb.

Magistrates said she constituted a danger to the public and as crash occurred near two schools and she had put lives at risk by her totally unacceptable conduct.

Banning her from driving for four years and handing Keys a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years the magistrate said:

She was extremely lucky they had decided not to impose an immediate prison sentence but to pass a sentence which was intended to rehabilitate her.

They advised her to seek some bereavement counselling.

She was banned from driving for four years and received a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

She was also sent on an alcohol workbook programme run by the probation service and ordered to pay £165 costs.

Mr Lloyd Jones said:

The conviction would mean the loss of her job because of the forfeit of her driving licence.