Sunderland shop worker issued six month ban for drink driving
A Greggs shop worker has been banned from driving for six months after being found drunk at the wheel in Sunderland.
Sianna Diamond, 20, had collided with a car – according to a police report – and was found smelling of booze on Friday, February 27.
Diamond, of Heather Law, Blackfell, Washington, was breathalysed at the roadside in Grange Road, Castletown, and gave an over the limit reading.
And in an evidential breath test at the city’s Southwick police station, she was over twice the limit, magistrates in South Tyneside heard.
She is starting a six-month roads’ disqualification after pleading guilty to the offence of being in charge of a vehicle while over the alcohol limit.
Prosecutor Jade Houston said there was no evidence from the police of the circumstances around Diamond’s car collision.
She added only: “Officers received a report of a female driver who was potentially drunk and who had collided with a car.
“They found her in a car, with the ignition still on and they could smell alcohol. A breath test was failed, and she was taken into custody.”
Diamond gave a reading for alcohol of 89mcg. The legal limit is 35mcg.
The court heard the charge of being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle carries a sentence of a six-month ban or 10 penalty points.
Janice Hall, defending, told magistrates a disqualification would be preferable to penalty points, which would lead to new driver Diamond having her licence revoked.
Ms Hall said delays to sit driving tests meant it would likely lead to Diamond being unable to get back on the roads for longer than the length of a ban.
She told magistrates: “I would ask you to consider that this is a matter that a line can be drawn under by a disqualification.
“Ms Diamond is just 20 years of age and is in a position in life where she is looking at the future.
“She has pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, and you will give her credit for that.”
Magistrates also fined Diamond £167, with £85 court costs and a £67 victim surcharge.
William Carlyon, chair of the bench, told her: “The courts do take these things very seriously.”