Lawyer is spared jail for drink-driving

♦ A lawyer who specialises in defending “loopholestyle” motoring offences has escaped jail for drink driving after she told the court her daughter was a victim of cyber bullying.

Helen Dugdale, 48, from Liverpool, was zigzagging along a main road in Birkenhead on June 29. Police found her unsteady on her feet, slurring and smelling of alcohol. Tests showed she had 63mg of alcohol per 100ml of breath. The limit is 35mg.

At Manchester magistrates’ court, Dugdale admitted drink driving. Richard Lenderyou, the magistrate, told her “this could have resulted in a custodial sentence” as she had a drink-driving conviction from 2013. However, she was given a three-year ban and £650 fine after she claimed she had been drinking as her 12-year-old daughter had been self harming due to bullying.