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Lenient sentence for drink driver

Haverfordwest court
Haverfordwest Magistrates court

A CARDIGAN woman was banned from driving for 12 months at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday. Caroline Quinn, aged 47, pleaded guilty to a charge of driving when her alcohol level was above the limit. Prosecuting, Ellie Morgan said: “At 7.45pm on Saturday, November 15, a witness noticed a Black Nissan vehicle which didn’t have headlights on.

The witness followed the car and noticed it hitting the curb on a couple of occasions. The car also then hit a parked car. The witness then saw the female getting out and staggering away. They could smell drink on her breath. She told the witness that she was on the way to pick up her son. This person replied: ‘You’re p*ssed, why did you get behind the wheel? Quinn replied: ‘I’m not denying it, you might as well call the police’. The police were called and she was breath tested with her lower reading at the station being 73 micrograms which is just over twice the legal limit.”

Defending, James Subbiani said: “Quinn has a son who suffers from Aspergers and they are currently under protection of a restraining order for an unrelated matter. She was not planning on going out but she was told that the person who is the subject of the restraining order was in Cilgerran where her son had gone and she started to worry and panic. She was worried as her son had not come home when he was supposed to and that he might encounter the person and was in a state of panic. She got behind the wheel as she wanted to go and find her son and she made a foolish mistake in doing so.

She has never been to the courts before, she has a clean license and these are quite unusual circumstances. Because of the circumstances I would ask you to depart from your guidelines and issue a shorter sentence and be as lenient as you possibly can.” Magistrates agreed with the defense saying they ‘understood the circumstances’. As a result Quinn was only disqualified for 12 months which the magistrates added was well below their guidelines. She was also fined £110 for the incident, £85 in court costs and a £20 victim surcharge totaling £215.

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