LAWYER ALMOST 4 TIMES OVER DRINK-DRIVE LIMIT IS FREED FROM PRISON
She had served 13 days of 10-week term
A Drink-driving lawyer who sobbed as she was jailed has now been dramatically given her freedom just a fortnight after being sent down.
Louise Taylor, aged 41, appealed the decision by magistrates to sentence her to 10 weeks for being caught almost four times over the limit while driving her Range Rover.
Taylor, from Sandbach, who is a lawyer for a banking company, had claimed she was only intoxicated because she had drunk a herbal kombucha tea that she did not know contained alcohol.
Now, Judge David Hale and two magistrates, sitting at Mold crown court, said it was his view that Taylor should have been given a suspended sentence instead.
He said it had been a stressful time for Taylor. Her late mother had been in a care home for 13 months and receiving end of life support.
“All three of us take the view we would have suspended the sentence because she has no previous convictions. There’s no history of alcoholism,” Judge Hale said.
The crown court hadn’t heard arguments about the fermented drink, unlike the original court when she tried to avoid a ban.
Taylor had said her pal told her the ‘disgusting’ herbal drink was good for gut health. “I didn’t believe it was alcoholic,” she said previously.
Her breath-alcohol count that night in April was 135 when stopped after police followed her on the A55 between Holywell and St Asaph, North Wales. The legal limit is 35.
The prosecution said she had nearly collided with wagons while overtaking on the dual carriageway and was ‘all over the road’.
“She must have known something was very wrong with her driving,” the judge remarked.
She ignored the police car and blue lights for six miles. “But there was no accident. In view of the problems there clearly are in her life, we would have suspended the sentence.”
Taylor had served 13 days in prison. The judge said the suspension of the remaining eight weeks would achieve no purpose.
“We allow the appeal and order her immediate release,” Judge Hale declared.
A 32-month ban was imposed, which she can reduce by taking a drink-drivers’ course.
Barrister Jade Tufail, for Taylor, told the judge that single Taylor was a successful solicitor with no previous convictions.
Previously it was stated she took home more than £66,000-a-year.
Explaining her personal life situation, counsel added: “All she had left was her career.”