A teaching assistant who crashed her car into a lorry after downing ‘two or three’ bottles of wine was caught after she came out of a petrol station clutching three more, a court heard.
Magistrates were told public-spirited motorists grabbed the keys to Diane Julie Holmes’ Volkswagen Beetle so she couldn’t drive off the forecourt.
Holmes, of Manchester Road, Baxenden, was caught on CCTV leaving the shop carrying the alcohol.
Holmes turned out to be almost three times the legal limit after she reversed into the wagon at Rising Bridge Service Station and was said to have a “very vague recollection” of what happened.
It was her second drink drive offence and she has also has a conviction for failing to provide a specimen of breath.
The Burnley Magistrates hearing was told the courts have now ordered Holmes off the road for a total of 13 years and she had already been on a Drink Impaired Drivers’ programme eight years ago.
The defendant, 56, admitted driving with excess alcohol. Holmes, currently off sick from her job at a college, was given a 12-month community order, with a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement and a £100 fine.
She was banned for four years and ordered to pay £85 costs and an £85 victim surcharge.
The bench chairman told Holmes the aggravating features of the case included the level of alcohol and her previous record. He added: “Members of the public had to take the keys away from you to stop you from driving.”
Prosecutor Mrs Tracy Yates told the hearing at about 7pm, witness Robert Shaw called the police and told them he had taken the keys off a woman who he had seen driving at Rising Bridge and who he suspected was drunk.
He told them she had been driving on the white line, “all over the place,” and he had put it down to the rainfall at the time.
Mrs Yates continued: “He said she went onto the forecourt of Rising Bridge service station and he saw her go into the shop. She then got into her vehicle and reversed into a lorry parked on the forecourt, causing minor damage. Other members of the public intervened and took the keys from the lady.”
The prosecutor said Holmes blew 104 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of alcohol at the roadside and gave a sample of 102 micrograms at the police station. The legal limit is 35.
