FOUR TIMES OVER LIMIT
Drove into car park barrier the morning after night out
A DRINK-DRIVER who was almost four times the legal limit has been told she was lucky not to hit a child after getting behind the wheel.
Kerry Falcus, who pleaded guilty to driving on Newcastle Quayside while drunk, said she had no idea she was so far over the limit while driving her Range Rover.
She was given a driving ban and a £10,000 bill for the damage caused when she smashed into a hotel car park barrier because she hadn’t yet sobered up after a night out.
Falcus, 41, had been drinking until around 3am on November 28, North Tyneside Magistrates’ Court heard on Wednesday.
Claire Irving, prosecuting, said Falcus had hit a barrier opposite the exit to the car park of the Copthorne Hotel, on the Quayside, causing “severe front-end damage” to her vehicle.
A police breath test showed her to be over the limit, and later tested at Forth Banks police station, another test put her at 137 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The limit is 35 microgrammes.
A representative of the probation service said Falcus had “not considered” the impact of alcohol on the body the morning after.
She would have been drunk as she drove to the hotel car park, on a visit to her dentist, the court heard.
Mitigating, Richard Haswell said company director Falcus, of Manor Drive, Longbenton, hadn’t been aware she was still unsafe to drive.
He said: “She didn’t get into that car thinking she was drunk – she thought she was perfectly fit to drive.
“Unfortunately, millions are driving to work every day over the limit because of the previous night’s drinking, and you don’t find out until you hit something.”
He also explained Falcus had, at the time, been using up to five double-sizes caps of Listerine mouthwash per day, and that the high alcohol content of this could have contributed to as much as 10% of her blood alcohol reading.
He said she had paid more than £3,000 to fix the damage to the barrier she hit, and was facing a bill of between £7,000 and £8,000 for repairs to the car. Falcus, of previous good character, would “not be back before this court”, he insisted.
Sentencing Falcus to an 18-month community order including 250 hours of unpaid work, chair of the bench Bob Waddell told her: “It is a very, very significant amount of alcohol that you’ve been driving with in your system.
“In one way it’s fortunate it was a barrier you hit and not a child or a pedestrian.”
She was disqualified from driving for 32 months, but chose to complete a drink-impaired driving programme at her expense which will reduce the length of the ban.