Drug-driving pregnant woman, 36, who was caught behind the wheel of uninsured car on her way back from McDonald’s after taking cocaine avoids jail
- Adnams was arrested driving an uninsured car under the influence of cocaine
- Mother-to-be had taken cocaine the night before and was stopped driving home
- The woman, 36, from Stoke-on-Trent was fined £120 and ordered to pay costs
A pregnant woman was stopped and arrested under the influence of cocaine, driving an uninsured car home from McDonalds.
Police caught up with Sarah Adnams, 36, near her home in Lightwood, Stoke-on-Trent, after suspecting she had been using drugs.
A roadside test revealed she was over the legal driving limit for cocaine.
Sarah Adnams was arrested in August last year, driving an uninsured car under the influence
Driving limits for illicit drugs were added to legislation following difficulties for prosecutors in proving that certain drugs impaired drivers.
Possession of cocaine holds a separate penalty.
The offence took place just after 6:30pm on 18 August 2022.
Ms Adnams, who is due to give birth in April, had reportedly taken cocaine the night before.
Alan Dawson, her defence lawyer, said: ‘The next day she decided to go to McDonald’s. She returned home and was stopped by the police.
‘She was charged with no insurance. There is nothing in the papers to suggest the defendant’s driving fell below the required standard.
‘She tells me she took out a monthly payment option with the insurance policy at a rate of £80 a month. Somewhere along the line the payment had stopped. The policy was no longer in force.
‘At the roadside the police suspected she may have taken a substance. Two samples of blood were taken from her in custody and sent off for analysis.
‘The BZE [benzoylecgonine] reading was 800 against the limit of 50 and the cocaine was 32 against the limit of 10.
‘It is not the same as alcohol and is simply indicative it is over the legal limit.’
Adnams, from Hampshire Crescent, pleaded guilty to two charges of drug-driving; driving without insurance; and breaching a suspended sentence.
Magistrates fined Adnams £120 and ordered her to pay £135 costs and a £48 surcharge.
They marked the breach of the suspended sentence with a £50 fine.
Police arrested Adnams (pictured) in August last year, suspecting she had taken drugs
Stoke on Trent Crown Court, where Adnams was fined and made to pay costs and a surcharge
In December last year, a pregnant mother under the influence of cocaine was arrested after running over her sister in Kent.
Lisa Bowden, 33, did not know she was pregnant at the time but had been drinking and taking cocaine before driving to her sister’s house with her two children in the car to have an argument.
She told her sister, Jade: ‘I’m going to kill you. Don’t move. I’m going to run you over.’
Bowden was captured on CCTV hitting her sister, for which she was later arrested.
Upon her arrest, Lisa Bowden’s drug reading registered 128 microgrammes for the cocaine by-product benzoylecgonine. The legal limit is 50.
She later claimed the positive test result was a consequence of someone spitting in her mouth.
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