‘Stressed’ junior doctor is spared prison

 A junior doctor caught drink driving twice was spared jail after complaining the “stress” of her medical degree gave her an alcohol problem.

Dr Lauren Fowler, 25, who graduated last year, said she began drinking heavily during her studies at Imperial College London.

Last October, after drinking at lunch with friends, Fowler bought a bottle of wine from an off-licence which she drank before crashing her Ford Ka. She was stopped by police less than two months later driving around a hotel car park near her family’s home in Styal, Cheshire, over three times the drink drive limit. A probationary statement read out in court said: “She drank at university to cope with the stress and she didn’t know who to go to for help with her addiction.”

At Stockport magistrates’ court Fowler wept as JPS said her offending “crossed the custody threshold” but suspended a jail term after hearing she had quit drinking. She was ordered to complete 40 hours’ unpaid work, and banned from driving for three years.