Let-off for drink-drive doctor caught TWICE in two months
A DOCTOR who narrowly escaped jail for drink driving after she turned to alcohol to cope with her ‘ stressful’ university studies has been allowed to carry on working unchecked.
Cambridge- educated Dr Lauren Fowler, 27, a former public schoolgirl, began drinking because of the pressure of her medical degree.
She was arrested by police for being over the drink-drive limit twice in less than two months in 2017. On the first occasion she was found incoherent after crashing her car in a busy pedestrian area while the second time she was more than three times the limit after downing vodka behind the wheel.
Fowler, who was shortlisted for a UK Scientist of the Year award in 2011, received a suspended jail term after admitting drink driving and was told she could only continue practising medicine under supervision.
But yesterday it emerged she had managed to salvage her career. A Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester agreed to lift restrictions on her fitness to practise after it agreed she no longer posed a risk to patients.
Fowler, who enrolled for further studies at Imperial College London in 2014, had claimed she drank heavily during university and did not know who to turn to for help. She has since given up alcohol but is still serving a three-year driving ban.
Tribunal chairman Anya Lewis said: ‘The tribunal accepted that Dr Fowler recognises the gravity of her misconduct... it is also satisfied that patients would not be placed at risk if Dr Fowler was to return to unrestricted clinical practice.’
Stockport Magistrates’ Court was told that Fowler, a former prefect and Agrade student at £11,400-ayear Stockport Grammar School, had drunk a bottle of white wine while out for lunch in Manchester but then drove to an off licence to buy another in October 2017.
She downed the second bottle in the driver’s seat and then crashed the vehicle, a Ford Ka, in a busy pedestrian area. When officers arrived Fowler was so drunk she could barely speak.
Fowler was bailed but stopped again in December after drinking half a bottle of vodka and crashing into another vehicle near her family’s home in Styal, near
Wilmslow, Cheshire. Tests showed Fowler had 112 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
A probationary statement in court said: ‘She (Fowler) drank at university to cope with the stress and she didn’t know who to go to for help with her addiction.’
Alongside a driving ban, Fowler was sentenced to eight weeks in prison suspended for a year and 40 hours’ unpaid work.
The MPTS said her practice would be restricted for 20 months. But this was lifted with immediate effect earlier this month.
Her lawyer Miles Bennett said: ‘ Her fitness to practise medicine is no longer impaired by her convictions.’
‘Drank to cope with stress’