Susan Hughes was given a suspended sentence after drinking a bottle of wine and getting behind the wheel of her car
A former PA who escaped jail once for a drink driving offence has managed to avoid being locked up again after she told the court she had been drinking wine to ‘cope’ with her £15,000 a year job.
Susan Hughes downed a bottle of white wine at a pub and was four times over the drink drive limit when she was pulled over trying to park her car at a Marks and Spencers store in Prestwich, near Manchester.
The 48-year-old said her actions were partly to blame on accepting a new office job which she said was ‘somewhat beneath her’ within the hotel industry after she lost her £30,000 a year post as an aide to a successful construction business tycoon.
Police were called to the scene after staff saw she was unable to park her car properly in the bay. When police noticed the smell of alcohol in her car, Ms Hughes was breathalysed and was found to have 139 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
The single mum-of-one previously escaped jail in 2014 for a similar offence after she was caught driving more than three times over the limit. She was banned from the roads for 30 months and had only got her licence back last year.
Crying in court, Ms Hughes was given 18 weeks jail suspended for a year after she begged not to be locked up for fears of losing her job and her house.
At Manchester magistrates court, she sobbed: ‘I want to apologise for this serious offence. I want to get myself right. I want to go to counselling and AA. I’ve stopped driving, I’m doing everything I can to change. I don’t want to lose my house and my job. I won’t do it again, I have learnt my lesson.’
Her lawyer Michael Lees said: ‘She had been in a domestic relationship which had knocked her self confidence and self esteem. She is a single parent, she left her ex-partner following the abuse she had received. This abuse made her turn to alcohol.
‘She was successful, she worked as a personal assistant for a director of a large construction company and was earning £30,000, but was made redundant and this put her back to square one.
The mum-of-one from Golborne blamed her actions on accepting a job she claimed was ‘somewhat beneath her’
‘She has a mortgage and the only work available to her at the moment is earning her £15,000 which means she is struggling to keep up the mortgage repayments. The work she is undertaking is somewhat beneath her – and beneath her abilities.
‘She explained that she used alcohol as a coping mechanism yet she knows this doesn’t offer her any long term solution to her problems. She knows what she was doing was wrong.’
He added: ‘She knew she shouldn’t have driven into the car park and she understands how serious it could have been. The M&S is very busy and she could have hurt somebody. She is at the lowest she can be.
‘If she is sent to prison she will lose her job and essentially lose her house. She doesn’t not diminish her behaviour, she knows what she did was wrong. He has actively joined an Alcoholic Anonymous group.
Police were called to the scene after staff at the M&S in Prestwich noticed Ms Hughes had struggled to park her car in a bay outside the store
Ms Hughes was given an 18 week jail term suspended for a year, banned from driving for four years, told to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and forced to pay costs of £200
‘She has sold her car. She has sought help for her anxiety and depression. If she gets a suspended sentence this will give her the opportunity to fix these issues and rebuild her life from ground zero. This is a sad case.’
Prosecutor Tess Kenyon said: ‘She (Ms Hughes) explained to officers that she had drunk two large glasses of wine at half three in the afternoon at a public house nearby, but then during interview she accepted that it was a full bottle of wine she had drunk.
‘She explained that she hadn’t drunk alcohol for four weeks and she hadn’t eaten all day. She said that she felt terrible. She accepted that she had been convicted for a previous offence and she had her license returned to her some time last year. She said she was ashamed of herself.’
Hughes was also banned from the roads for four years told to carry out 150 hours unpaid work and pay costs of £200.
The judge told her: ‘You must understand, if you do this again, you will be going to prison.’