Spared a ban, drink-driver who said she didn’t realise there was vodka in her orange juice
A MOTHER caught almost twice the drink- drive limit escaped a ban by claiming she drank a pint glass of orange juice without realising it had vodka in it.
Cosmetic surgery boss Michelle Butterworth, 37, was given an absolute discharge after arguing she ‘didn’t knowingly consume alcohol’ as she has a poor sense of smell and taste.
She was getting ready for work the morning after a party when she knocked back the contents of the glass, unaware her son had poured four shots into it, magistrates were told.
On the way to her business dressed in nurse’s scrubs, Butterworth bumped her Renault Clio in the back of another vehicle at a pedestrian crossing. Police were called and found her to be almost twice the legal limit but magistrates ruled there were ‘special reasons’ to excuse her behaviour.
Butterworth admitted drink- driving but insisted she had not deliberately had alcohol that morning and only discovered the juice contained vodka when she returned home
from the police station. She said the drink was made by her son Lewis Woods the previous evening. The 19-year-old told the court that he poured a generous measure of vodka into the pint glass before leaving it in the kitchen.
Butterworth runs a practice giving antiwrinkle injections, dermal fillers and lip enhancements in Swinton, Greater Manchester, and calls herself a law graduate and former personal trainer on social media.
She threw the party last November to mark her house move from Manchester to Birmingham.
‘I have just started my own business as an aesthetic nurse and I never go out and drive,’ she said.
‘I didn’t knowingly consume alcohol that morning. The night
before I had some drinks with friends. I had three large glasses of white wine and stopped drinking at around 9.30pm or 10pm.
‘I had work the next day and I am injecting people’s faces so I couldn’t be feeling rough.
‘Two of my friends were there and my son and three of his friends. When I woke the next morning, I felt fine. There was orange juice on
the side in a pint glass. I didn’t know there was alcohol inside – I have had two operations on my nose so my taste and sense of smell is poor.
‘I drove to work, I was taking two passengers and was turning to speak to them when I went into the back of the car.
‘I couldn’t get my head round it all so when I got home I discussed
it with my son and that is when the penny dropped.’ Her son said: ‘We ran out of mixer so I used the orange juice in the fridge.
‘But I remembered my friend doesn’t like juice with bits in it so I ended up just leaving it on the side. I think I must have poured around four shots into the glass.’
Prosecutor Marion Nolan said Butterworth had 57 micro-
grammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, with the legal limit being 35mg.
She told Manchester magistrates: ‘The police officer at the station said her eyes were glazed and she smelt of alcohol.’ Miss Nolan said an expert witness claimed the vodka would still not have accounted for the volume of alcohol in Butterworth’s breath.
‘My sense of smell and taste is poor’