The Sun reported on Friday that a woman was caught more than four times over the drink-drive limit – and yet somehow still managed to avoid jail. The woman in question reportedly drank 20 pints and other alcoholic drinks (according to the report, though I find this inaccurate unless she’d drank them over an extended period) prior to being pulled over by the police.
A breath test showed that this particular law breaker had 144mg of alcohol per 100ml, whereas the legal maximum is 35mg per 100ml. Perhaps though what’s most surprising is that in this case the woman walked free after being given an eight-week suspended sentence by Bury St Edmonds court.
Naturally, the suspended nature of the sentence was condemned by the road safety charity Brake, who gave out a particularly strongly worded statement on the lack of punishment for this particular offense. Of course, what makes it worse that in this case, the criminal (that is, after all, what she is right?) was also uninsured. Amazingly, she was also driving on a provisional license only!
There was (luckily) some form of other punishment including a ban from the road for 30 months, given a community order and an order to take part in a rehabilitation programme for this particular type of driving offense.
You’ll notice that I haven’t named the offender. The reason behind this is simply that I think far too much of this is going on (and the blog isn’t for naming and shaming – but you can find out who she was here).
I’ve used this article merely to highlight that people are getting away with suspended sentences, even though they have been excessively over the limit. This really rather scares me. If you, like me, believe this is unacceptable, write to your local MP to express your concern. What if, for instance, you’d been driving and put at risk by a drink driver? Your comments are appreciated.
Drink drivers deserve more than just a ban – Custodial Sentences are a more fitting solution added with a lifetime ban from owning – driving a car