Whitchurch woman caught drink driving on school run

Angela Claire Partington, 35, of Highfields at Isycoed, Whitchurch, told police she had no idea how she was over the limit, and had only drunk one glass of wine while baking cakes for a school event.

Magistrates, at a special Saturday sitting of Flintshire Magistrates Court in Mold, heard that police had been acting on a tip-off when they found that Partington had 90 microgrammes of alcohol in her system – compared to the legal limit of 35.

Magistrates were told the case was aggravated by Partington's high reading, and the fact that she had driven to school with a young child in the car.

Prosecutor Nicola Wyn-Williams said the defendant was also picking up another child and there was the danger to other schoolchildren and other road users.

Partington admitted the charge of drink driving at School Lane in Bronington.

She was held in custody overnight but was bailed pending sentence on Friday at Wrexham Magistrates' Court.

An interim driving ban was imposed in the meantime.

The prosecutor told how there was an anonymous tip-off to the police about the defendant drink driving.

Magistrates heard how officers went to the school and saw that Partington had a child in the Renault Laguna.

She went to school to pick up another child but while there it appeared she noticed the marked police car.

The prosecutor said that Partington appeared hesitant to drive away - so much so that all the other parents had left and she was the only one remaining.

At one stage she moved across to the passenger seat.

Approached by police she said that she had wine the night before but none that day.

She blew a reading of 95 at the scene, was arrested, and produced the 90 reading at the police station.

Interviewed, she said that she had been baking cakes for a school charity sale the following day and had poured herself a glass of white wine.

"She claimed that she had no idea how she was nearly three times the drink drive limit," the prosecutor told the court.

The defendant said that she had not had anything to eat.

Police had kept her in custody because she appeared to have "a complete lack of regard" for the safety of the child in the car and for the safety of others, she said.

Phillip Lloyd Jones, defending, asked for an adjournment so that the court could consider intervention by the probation service.