Addict mum fights jail term

Sentenced to a month in prison over crash

A CORIO mum with a “remarkably bad” driving record has been bailed after appealing against her jail sentence.

Hannah Beggs, 26, appeared in the Geelong Magistrates’ Court yesterday over a number of serious driving matters.

The court heard Beggs, who pleaded guilty, was travelling along the Princes Freeway on July 26 when she tried to merge into a lane and narrowly avoided colliding with another car.

Instead, Beggs struck a roadside barrier and travelled out of control for about 50m before her car came to a stop.

Prosecutor Leading Senior Constable Denise Frame said police arrived at the scene about 10 minutes after the crash and were told police had received a number of reports of the same car travelling in an erratic manner just moments before the crash.

The court heard Beggs was ordered to undergo a preliminary breath test and returned a positive reading but refused to do further breath testing.

Months earlier Beggs had been caught driving at 154km/h in an 100km/h zone on a major highway and in early July was caught driving with a suspended licence and false registration plates.

Through her lawyer Beggs told the court she had struggled with drugs for much of her life and had recently re- lapsed after being clean for 18 months.

The court heard Beggs had been “destroyed” by family violence and that the young woman was desperate to be reunited with her children and address her drug addiction.

Magistrate Graeme Keil said Beggs’ driving behaviour was continuing to put the lives of all people on the road at risk.

“You cannot, you must not do what you’ve been doing,” Mr Keil said.

“You cannot inflict your pain on other people.”

Mr Keil sentenced Beggs to one month in prison and disqualified her from driving for 12 months.

Beggs appealed against the sentence and has been released on bail and will appear at the Geelong County Court next month.