A NORTH Cumbrian woman prosecuted for drink driving blamed her offending behaviour on a decision to have a “last blow-out” before giving up alcohol for good.

A probation officer who interviewed 39-year-old Rockcliffe woman Jennifer Louise Latimer, who had never been in trouble before, said she felt “mortified” to have found herself before a court for the offence.

She admitted drink driving.

Peter Kelly, prosecuting, outlined the facts.

He said that police were alerted shortly before 3pm on July 15 that an ambulance had been called to a road near Castletown, northwest of Rockcliffe, where a woman had been found in her parked car appearing to be unwell.

The defendant said she had fallen asleep in her parked Volkswagen.

But police deemed it appropriate to ask her for a breath specimen. A urine sample obtained at the city’s Durranhill Police HQ later confirmed that the defendant had more than three times the permitted level of alcohol in her system.

Mr Kelly then summarised what Latimer told officers during her formal interview.

“She said she had been shopping on Saturday morning and purchased two bottles of wine and returned home,” said the prosecutor.  “It was mid-day when she commenced drinking.”

After drinking wine, she decided to drive to Longtown to buy food but on the return journey she had suddenly felt unwell and pulled over. A concerned woman walker who was passing called an ambulance.

“She confirmed that she had not consumed any alcohol after stopping in her vehicle,” said Mr Kelly, confirming that Latimer was a woman of previous good character.

The probation officer in court said the defendant had expressed both shame and victim empathy but that when she began her drive to Longtown she had not felt under the influence.

The officer added: “She’s absolutely mortified to be in court.  She has never been in a court before this offence. Two weeks previous [to the offence], she had got married.

"They’ve been in a relationship for seven years.

“They decided they were going to try for a family and this was a last blow out. She was going to stop drinking.”

Defence lawyer Duncan Campbell added: “She will never be before a court ever again.

“The reason she had that level of alcohol was that it was a last blow out when she was going to give up drink altogether.”

District Judge John Temperley said the level of alcohol involved made it a serious offence but thankfully nobody was harmed.

“It could easily have happened with a reading of that level,” he pointed out.

The defendant, of Solway View, Rockcliffe, was given a 12-month community order with 100 hours of unpaid work and banned for two years.

She was offered the drink driver rehabilitation course, which if completed by a deadline will reduce her ban by 24 weeks. She must pay a £114 victim surcharge.