Don’t ban me from the road, my driveway is too long to walk

A LAWYER’S widow who was caught drink-driving argued in court that she should not be banned from getting behind the wheel as her driveway is too long for her to walk down.

Barbara Woodward, 56, was three times the legal alcohol limit when she drove to buy wine last November.

At Stockport magistrates’ court, Nigel Beeson, her lawyer, said: “This lady has quite a large front drive, it is a quarter of a mile from the road and it would be difficult for her – she would have to make some lifestyle changes to go about her day-to-day life.”

Woodward was found by police in her £79,000 Mercedes G-class 4x4 at 9am on Nov 17 near Alderley Edge, Cheshire, two days after her husband’s funeral. Test results showed she had 104mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

She told the court: “I buried my husband on 15 November and the months leading up to it were terrible. He did everything, and then when he died I had to take over. I had never paid a bill in my life. I was just so distraught.”

She asked that she not be ordered to carry out unpaid work, claiming it would “put her in an alien surrounding” as she had never worked.

Magistrates convicted her of driving with excess alcohol and banned her for two years – but spared her the unpaid work. She was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course and was fined £560 with £705 costs.