Ban and fine for woman found four times limit
A SHOELESS driver was caught four times the drink-driving limit with a four-year-old boy in her car in a child seat, a court has heard.
Hairdresser Melissa Masson, 26, had drunk a bottle of prosecco before strapping the youngster into the rear of her soft-top Mini and storming off from her parents’ home in Strathblane, Stirlingshire.
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard her black Mini One convertible was spotted by police on the A81 Glasgow Road, Strathblane, at 2.20am on April 10.
Prosecutor Caitlin French said: “They observed the accused’s car leaving the roadway on a bend and completely coming to rest on the verge.
“The accused was seated in the driving seat with a four-year-old child seated in the rear of the vehicle in a car seat.
“The police witnesses approached with a view to offering assistance.
“They saw the accused sitting staring into space and not immediately acknowledging them. “The child began to cry. “The accused’s reactions towards the police were slow. She wasn’t wearing any shoes and her speech was slurred. She was excessively emotional.”
Police asked Masson if
BY TIM BUGLER she had been drinking, to which she replied: “Yes.”
After failing a roadside breath test, Masson was taken to Clydebank Police Station where she provided a breath sample containing 88 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres.
She began to vomit and made no reply to being cautioned and charged.
Masson, of Milngavie Road, Strathblane, pled guilty to drink-driving.
Her not guilty plea to a charge of ill-treating the child by driving him in a car while she was under the influence was accepted by the Crown.
Defence solicitor Manus Tolland said Masson was “appalled” at her actions.
He said: “She doesn’t drink, normally, but on this particular day she’d had prosecco to drink, an argument developed late at night with her parents, and she stupidly took the decision to leave the house.”
First offender Masson was banned from driving for 20 months and fined £600. Sheriff Derek Livingston said: “She must have had a fair amount of prosecco to be at this level.”
He told Masson: “It’s quite clear you were dangerous at the time, to both yourself and, significantly, to the four-year-old child.”