Serial drink-driver spared jail because she is a woman

A SERIAL drink-driver who struck three cars after drinking a bottle of wine was spared jail by a judge who said she should not be behind bars because she is a woman.

Victoria Parry, 30, was told that if she had been a man, “it would have been straight down the stairs” to prison.

Instead, Judge Sarah Buckingham said the defendant should be given another chance to get her life in order and give up drinking.

Parry was driving her Fiat Stilo when she hit three vehicles on the A46 near Stratford-upon-avon before crashing into a ditch, where her car burst into flames, on May 23 last year.

Parry, a shop manager from the town, who has two previous convictions for drink-driving, admitted dangerous driving and was given a three-month deferred sentence when she appeared at Warwick Crown Court yesterday.

Judge Buckingham told the court: “If Miss Parry was a man, there is no question it would have been straight down the stairs, because this is a shocking case of dangerous driving against a background of two previous convictions for excess alcohol.

“But this offence was committed in May 2018 and she has not been in trouble since. She has clearly got an alcohol problem. She is, whether she admits it or not, an alcoholic.”

Addressing Parry, the judge added: “You richly deserve an immediate custodial sentence of 18 months.

“I want to see whether you can really address the issues rather than paying lip service. If you succeed, I will not make the custody immediate. If you don’t comply, I will conclude that you are not worthy of the chance.”

The court heard Parry overtook a vehicle against oncoming traffic and ploughed into a van before hitting the wing mirror of a Vauxhall Insignia and the side of a BMW.

Prosecutor Tim Sapwell said: “She hit it with such force that the BMW’S rear wheel was knocked off and the car was written off.

“It caused her Fiat to spin in the road and go down the embankment into a wooded area, where it caught fire.”

Other drivers rushed to Parry’s aid, including an off-duty police inspector who pulled her out of the burning car. Parry told him that she had drunk a bottle of wine, saying: “I shouldn’t be driving.”

Lucy Tapper, mitigating, said: “She thought she was going to die. This has been a very salutary lesson to her.”