Jail reprieve for ex-JP’s wife who drove after vodka binge
THE wife of a former magistrate has been banned from driving for three years after drowning her redundancy sorrows with a bottle of vodka and getting behind the wheel.
Anna Wiles, 54, escaped jail despite being almost four times the legal limit after a court heard she was “of good character”.
The mother-of-two was found slumped in the driver’s seat of her Mini convertible by a concerned passer-by.
She had earlier drained a quarter bottle of vodka “in one go” after learning she would be losing her job as a care home administrator.
As her car weaved along a road, the witness called an ambulance fearing she had suffered a stroke or heart attack.
At Manchester magistrates court, Wiles, of Sale, admitted drinkdriving and was also sentenced to eight weeks in prison, suspended for a year. She was also ordered to pay £200 in costs and surcharges.
Wiles’s husband Richard, 56, who sat as a magistrate for seven years, watched from the public gallery. The court heard the arrest happened on January 10 after Wiles bought vodka from a shop before driving home.
Tina Cunnane, prosecuting, said: “She was spotted by an independent witness who saw her weaving in her lane.
“She was concerned about her driving and the defendant then stopped in the road.
“The witness saw the defendant slumped in the driver’s seat with her head back and her mouth open. She was concerned she had suffered a stroke or heart attack. When the paramedics attended they called the police.
“The defendant’s husband arrived and indicated that she was intoxicated. She was arrested and taken to the police station.”
Tests showed that Wiles had 134 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 mililtres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.
Sorry
A probation report said it was Wiles’s first offence and she had had “an emotional conversation with her husband the night before”.
It added: “On January 10 she found that she was being made redundant and was concerned about going home. She then made the foolish decision – and she acknowledges that – to buy a quarter bottle of vodka and consumed that in one go.
“She is upset that she could have killed somebody or herself. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. The reading was quite high but she has been co-operative and is very, very sorry for what happened.”