Drink-driver ‘was trying to escape mother’
A WOMAN who planned to sleep in her car to escape her mother has been found guilty of drink-driving.
Paulina Gancarz, who was more than five times the alcohol limit while at the wheel of her Mini Cooper, was spared jail after claiming she had decided to get away from her mother, with whom she had a difficult relationship.
Gancarz, 34, who was going through a divorce, was found slumped at the wheel in a lay-by after she had been drinking wine while in the driver’s seat. The mother of one was arrested after giving a roadside breath test reading of 182mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the legal limit being 35mcg.
However, on the day she was due to appear before court, she was found to be over three times the limit after she crashed outside a Mark & Spencer store near her home in Wilmslow, Cheshire, at 7am. At Stockport magistrates’ court, Gancarz, who previously ran her own accountancy firm, admitted drinkdriving and failing to provide a specimen of breath.
The court heard an acrimonious split with her husband had cost her £65,000 in lawyers’ fees. Gancarz was banned from driving for three years and ordered to complete a 12-month community order, 60 hours unpaid work and pay £170 court costs.