Drink-drive learner lost her way in town centre

ALEARNER driver has been banned from the roads after getting lost in a town centre while almost twice the drink drive limit.

Tracy Rose, 38, from Rochdale, who already had six points on her licence, was not insured.

She was pulled up by police after stalling twice in the middle of the road, almost causing a crash and nearly hitting a wall.

Rose blew 61 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the legal limit is 35.

Magistrates were told Rose, who was lost, was not displaying L-plates on the Ford Mondeo and the windows were so steamed up, it would have been difficult to see anything out of the vehicle.

The car, which belonged to her father, was seized by police after the incident in the early hours of February 25.

Rose, of Digby Road, Queensway, admitted driving with excess alcohol on Healeywood Road, Burnley, not having valid insurance and not having a valid licence.

She was fined £140, with £115 costs and was banned from driving for 17 months.

Prosecutor Charlotte Crane told the court police on duty at 1am were behind a black Ford Modeo, which was being driven ‘strangely’.

It stalled in the middle of the road at one point and the windows were all steamed up. It set off again, went extremely close to a wall and then stalled again, forcing an oncoming car to have to stop to avoid a collision.

Rose was stopped, the officers immediately smelled alcohol on her breath and she told them she had had two glasses of wine about four hours earlier.

Miss Crane said: ” They spoke to the passenger, Ben Swainston. He was heavily under the influence of alcohol. He said ‘I didn’t know she had a provisional licence. I’m in no state to supervise anybody’.”

The prosecutor said the defendant did have an insurance policy for a learner driver, which stated she had to be under the supervision of somebody who had a full driving licence and was not under the influence of alcohol.

She had not been displaying L-plates.

The hearing was told Rose was given six points on her licence in her absence in March last year, for no insurance.

The defendant, who was not represented by a solicitor, told the court: ”I genuinely thought I was alright. I had been to sleep after drinking and I genuinely thought I was OK.”

“My passenger was messing about with my radio. We were lost. I was shouting at him to stop messing about.

“To be honest, I had never been to Burnley before. I didn’t know where I was going. My passenger is from Burnley and he was directing me, but not very well.”