STUDENT’S DRINK-DRIVE SHAME
TEENAGER GIVEN 12-MONTH DRIVING BAN AFTER FAILING BREATH TEST
A STUDENT has been banned from the roads for drink-driving after she failed a breath test while back home from university.
Francesca Scott, 19, was stopped by police at the wheel of her mother’s Mini Cooper after a female friend she had been driving home from a night out was seen slumped in the passenger seat in a drunken stupor.
Police asked Scott to take a breath test and she was found to be more than one-and-a-half times the alcohol limit.
She was kept in police cells until 5am until she was allowed to go home to her family.
It emerged undergraduate Scott, who lives in Mottram St-Andrew, near Wilmslow, had decided to drive her friend home as a good deed saying she feared the friend would be in danger if she was a lone female in a taxi.
At Stockport magistrates court, the teenager – who attended Cheadle Hulme School before enrolling at Falmouth University, in Cornwall – admitted driving with excess alcohol and was disqualified from driving for 12 months.
The incident occurred in Wilmslow on December 22 whilst Scott was back home for the Christmas holidays from Falmouth.
Prosecutor Robin Lynch said: “This defendant is a lady of good character with no previous convictions on her record.
“Officers were on mobile patrol in the area of Manchester Road and saw a Mini pull of a car park in the town centre. There were a number of off-licence premises around the area.
“They pulled that vehicle over and saw a female passenger who seemed to be slumped over in the passenger seat asleep, they could smell intoxicant in the vehicle. They were fully compliant at the scene and the defendant was taken to a nearby police station where she provided breath tests.”
Tests revealed Scott had 54 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
In mitigation, her lawyer Jon Mail said: “She was completely cooperative with police at the scene and at the station.
“She is a full-time student in Falmouth and was back home over the Christmas period. She had gone to meet some friends from home, she did not intend to drink and was in her mum’s car. She did have oneand-a-half glasses of wine.
“Unfortunately, one of her friends was in a bad way and foolishly Miss Scott had offered to give her friend a lift home.
“She has always been told by her parents not to go in a taxi alone as a female and she made the wrong decision to drive her friend home rather than put her in a taxi.
“It was a shock to her that she was over the limit. She was put in a cell all night and her parents did not know where she was until 5 o’clock in the morning, the whole experience has been traumatic for her.
“She’s always been told by her parents that she should not drive after drinking any alcohol whatsoever, this shows that even a couple of glasses puts you over the limit.”
Scott was also fined £120. Sentencing, chair of the bench Caroline Turner told her: “I think you now realise that you made a foolish decision to drive that evening.
“You will now be disqualified from driving 12 months – though we are prepared to offer you the rehabilitation scheme to reduce the ban.”