Drink-driver wedged Audi into stone wall

High Peak Magistrates’ Court heard how police had been called to Briargrove Road in Thornsett at about 10.10pm on February 20.

John Cooper, prosecuting, said officers found an Audi A3 blocking the road.

It had severe front-end damage and appeared to be wedged into a stone wall at the side of the road.

Carole Ann Hill, 49, was the driver of the vehicle and failed a roadside breath test.

She was taken to hospital for treatment and it was not until 1.40am - nearly three-and-a-half hours after the accident - that she provided two samples of breath at the police station.

The reading of the intoxilyser machine was 51 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

The legal limit is 35.

Hill, of Mellor Road, New Mills, pleaded guilty to driving while over the drink-drive limit.

The court was told Hill had been out for a meal with her partner, the designated driver, and she had drunk two large glasses of wine.

But when her partner, who is diabetic, started to feel unwell, light-headed and nauseous, Hill decided she would drive back as she ‘felt ok’ and that a taxi was ‘difficult to get’.

Magistrates heard that, since the incident on February 20, Hill had lost a stone in weight as she was terrified she would go to prison.

She had also had trouble sleeping.

Hill’s defence solicitor told the court that she was ashamed of her actions, had informed her bosses of the incident but was unsure whether she would keep her job.

Magistrates banned Hill from the road for 16 months, but gave her the option of reducing the ban by completing a drink-driver rehabilitation course.

She was also ordered to pay a total of £679, made up of a £540 fine, £54 government surcharge and £85 court costs.