A Portadown woman who “stupidly decided to drive home” after a wedding and ended up in a ditch had a “very high” alcohol reading, a court has been told.
Emma Hobson, of Union Street, appeared before Craigavon Magistrates’ Court on Friday, where defence admitted she was lucky not to have been charged with careless driving too.
Instead, the 33-year-old faced a single charge of driving with excess alcohol in her breath, to which she pleaded guilty.
The court heard the incident occurred on July 7, when police were called to a road traffic collision on the Northway, Portadown.
Court heard Hobson had veered into oncoming traffic and ended up in a ditch.
When officers arrived at the scene the defendant submitted to a preliminary breath test which she failed.
In custody, a second test carried out gave a reading of 90mgs of alcohol in 100mls of breath.
During interview, Hobson told police she had taken her eyes off the road to change the radio over and swerved over a lane.
Defence counsel accepted that this was a “very high reading” and the defendant was lucky not to be charged with careless driving after what she said in interviews with police.
Defence counsel stated that the defendant had been a wedding the night before this incident and had “stupidly decided to drive home”.
Court heard she had since got rid of the car and her insurance had covered the damage which she had caused.
The defendant was disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to pay a fine of £350, along with the offender’s levy of £15, within 16 weeks.
