A CLEANER was over the drink drive limit by almost three times as she tried to leave the car park at Cumbria Fire & Rescue HQ near Penrith where she worked. 

Witnesses saw 64-year-old Joan Baglee reverse her Nissan car towards a tree as she struggled to manoeuvre it out of a car parking space after she had finished a shift, Carlisle's Rickergate court heard. 

Staff who intervened found her sitting in the car, highly intoxicated and with empty alcohol bottles beside her.

Baglee, of Sockbridge, near Penrith, admitted drink driving. George Shelley, prosecuting, described how the offence came to light at 6.30pm on June 17.

When workers from within the nearby office building went out to investigate the Nissan Quashqai, they found Baglee sitting in her car with the doors open, the vehicle having been parked askew across a bay.

“Her eyes were rolling to the back of her head and she was slurring her speech,” said the prosecutor.” Nobody else was in the car

Describing what happened when the police arrived, Mr Shelley said: “She was sitting in the driver’s seat and said: “I’m sorry I’ve been so bad. The officer described her as "highly intoxicated.”

A blood test later confirmed that Baglee had 239mcg of alcohol in every litre of blood. The legal limit for driving is 80mcg. A probation officer in court said the defendant felt ashamed and sorry.

On the day, she had a “couple of glasses of wine at home” and felt okay to drive, she claimed; and she had such a bad day that she decided to drink more wine she had bought with her groceries before work.

The officer said Baglee had suffered a “significant trauma” during childhood and while she had taken “mood stabilising” medication for some years, at the time of the offence she was not taking it because she had felt better.

She had used alcohol in an attempt to boost her emotional stability, added the officer. The officer said Baglee was not alcohol dependent but had indulged in “binge drinking.”

Defence lawyer Steven Marsh said Baglee had made impressive progress efforts to address her problems. 

It was the prosecution that shook her into addressing her issues, said Mr Marsh, adding that the defendant was a woman with a clean driving record going back 21 years.

Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order, with ten rehabilitation activity days and an 80-day alcohol abstinence order, which will be electronically tagged. She was banned for 25 months but offered the drink driver rehabilitation order.

If completed by a deadline, it will reduce her ban by 25 weeks.