A nurse from County Durham has been convicted of driving when almost five times over the drinking drive limit.
Elaine Younger, 48, of Beamish Hills, Beamish, County Durham, admitted driving a motor vehicle when the amount of alcohol in her breath exceeded the prescribed limit. This is an offence contrary to section 5(1) of the Road Traffic Act 1988.
Newton Aycliffe Magistrates' Court heard that Younger crashed her Toyota RAV4 into a lamppost at 2 pm on 5th August 2019.
She was pulled from the vehicle by a witness and was clearly the worse for wear with drink.
Oriana Frame, prosecuting, said: "Witnesses reported hearing a loud bang and on seeing the car ran to assist the driver.
"The engine was still revving and the defendant still had her foot on the pedal, she appeared to be unconscious.
"She failed a road side breath test and was taken to the police station where the lowest reading was 168 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
"She was interviewed and said she couldn’t really recall the incident and she didn’t remember drinking alcohol that day. She said she binge drinks but does not consider herself an alcoholic."
Adam Scott, mitigating, described his client as having personal psychiatric difficulties.
"She was drinking from 1st August to 5th August and went to sleep as you would after drinking wine and vodka. When she woke up she said she was going to the gym. Her husband thought she looked okay."
Given the phenomenal amount of alcohol in Younger's breath, Magistrates had previously ordered a pre-sentence report.
The report said: "She trained as a nurse in 1990 and works as a surgical staff nurse, although she has been off work for some time. She is an intelligent and articulate lady who understands the peril that she put other people in that day. It is a very high reading, certainly the highest reading I've ever seen.
"There are some chronic mental health difficulties, her father's death had a detrimental effect on her. It has taken numerous medications and years for her to be properly diagnosed and she was using alcohol to self-medicate. She reports a significant improvement in her mental health and wellbeing now."
Younger was convicted of failing to provide a specimen back in 2016, which is clearly an aggravating feature of this latest offence.
Chairman of the bench, Mark O'Neill, fined Younger £866 (although that value could include costs and victim surcharge, given the way the press sometimes report on these cases) and banned her from driving for five years.
Mr O'Neill said: "There is plenty of support out there for you and we hope that you are successful in your endeavours."
As mentioned earlier, a reading of 168 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath is exceptionally high.
According to the relevant sentencing guidelines, an offence of this nature would usually attract a starting point of 12 weeks in custody, with a range of between a high level community order and 26 weeks in custody.
The court must have considered there to be very significant mitigation to allow Younger to walk away with only a financial penalty.
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