Drink-drive mother asked owner of car she hit not to call police
A CITY property executive who crashed into five cars on her way home from her husband’s 40th birthday party begged the owner of one of the vehicles not to call the police because she had drunk “a few glasses of wine”, a court heard.
Gemma Hewes, 40, was double the drinks limit when she wrote off a parked car while driving children in her 4x4. The mother of two, a director with BNP Paribas Real Estate, had been drinking wine and champagne.
She told witnesses she was distracted by her phone moments before the collision, which left a Renault Espace written-off and the other vehicles with visible damage. The steering column of her Land Rover snapped on impact.
Prosecutor Paul Poulter told the court: “She said: ‘Please don’t call the police. I’ve had a few glasses of wine.’”
However, residents dialled 999 and a tearful Hewes was arrested at the £1.15million home she shares with husband Ross in Southfields, south London. She pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol on her breath and driving without due care and attention in Kenilworth Avenue, Wimbledon at 8.15pm on May 7.
Wimbledon magistrates’ court heard Hewes had 74 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35. She was fined £1,350, with £85 costs, ordered to pay a £90 victim surcharge and was disqualified from driving for 17 months.
Hewes’s lawyer Tom Dunn said: “This is a very dark day for Gemma Hewes and her family ... She is not a drinker, she rarely drinks.
“Damage is being met by the family out of their own pockets.”