Nearly 4 times legal limit

ONE for the road is never a good idea, particularly when you have had “a heavy night on the booze”, a Dunedin woman has discovered.

Last Saturday, 29yearold Rachel Kimber was clocked by police doing 120kmh on the Northern Motorway and when she was pulled over her eyes were glazed and she smelled of liquor, the Dunedin District Court heard yesterday.

That morning she had downed a glass of cider before hitting the road but it was the previous night’s revelry that undid her.

“The defendant stated she had a heavy night on the booze,” a police summary said.

Kimber said she was dropping a friend at home in St Kilda when she was stopped.

Tests that followed revealed a breathalcohol level of 910mcg — nearly four times the legal limit.

Counsel Chris Lynch said it was Kimber’s first time in court and she was extremely “embarrassed”.

“It’s unusual to be drinking for her,” she said.

Such was the extreme level of Kimber’s intoxication that Community Magistrate Simon Heale asked whether the woman might benefit from some “official oversight” — a sentence of supervision.

Ms Lynch told the court the defendant had strong support from her partner and family and knew where to go for assistance if she believed she needed it.

Kimber was fined $500 and ordered to pay court costs of $130.

She was banned from driving for 28 days after which the alcoholinterlocklicence regime will apply.