A female motorist from Milford Haven who crashed her car whilst over the limit has been charged in court with drink-driving.
Thirty-five-year-old Christina Jones, of Meadow Way, Waterston, pleaded guilty to driving her Peugeot 207 on the A477 Neyland/Sentry Cross road, with 100 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, exceeding the prescribed limit, when she appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that the incident occurred on March 5, shortly before 4 pm.
“It would appear that due to the fact that she was heavily intoxicated, Mrs. Jones lost control of her car and drove it up the verge and hedge, with the vehicle turning over and coming back onto the road on it’s roof.
“She was very lucky that she only suffered minor injuries and very lucky that no other vehicles were coming the other way at the time,” he continued.
“The defendant told police that she swerved to avoid something, which may or may not be true, as we hear of lots of cases of imaginary dogs in the road in this court, as you can imagine!” added Mr. Pritchard-Jones.
Defence solicitor Mike Kelleher told the court that his client, who looked after three children, was suffering with post natal depression at the time, and to try and combat it, had taken alcohol.
“This has been a huge wake-up call for her, and Mrs. Jones has arranged an appointment with the Dyfed Drug and Alcohol Service (DDAS), as she wants to make every effort to get out of the hole that she’s got herself into.
“She’s never been in trouble before and the loss of her driving licence will make things extremely difficult for her due to her location,” added Mr. Kelleher.
Magistrates ordered a fast delivery report to be made by the probation service, before passing sentence.
Mrs. Jones was told that the offence was serious enough for her to be given a nine-month community order, with a 15-day rehabilitation activity requirement, as well as being disqualified from driving for a period of 25 months.
Magistrates also fined her £80 for the offence, and ordered her to pay prosecution costs of £85 and an £85 victim service charge.