A woman has been jailed after she repeatedly crashed her vehicle into a parked car while more than five times the drink-drive limit.
Police were called after residents saw Phillipa Jutton’s Toyota Aygo roll forward and hit a car in Glebe Close, Eastbourne, shortly before 10pm on 15 October.
Jutton appeared to be asleep at the wheel and when one of the residents spoke to her she tried to drive away, hitting the same car three more times with her Toyota before she could get past it.
When officers arrived they breathalysed the 33-year-old and recorded a reading of 188 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of her breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes of alcohol.
Jutton, of Greys Road, Eastbourne, pleaded guilty to drink-driving and driving without due care and attention when she appeared at Hastings Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday (29 October).
The reading on her breath test was so high that it was off the sentencing scale that magistrates are given to help them decide on punishments.
Jutton was jailed for six weeks, banned from driving for three years and ordered to pay an £80 victim surcharge.
Chief Inspector Phil Nicholas said:
We are continuing to have to arrest people who refuse to stick to the drink-drive laws. Jutton was well over the limit but has refused to tell us what she was doing before she was found behind the wheel so we do not know how long she was drinking for or why she decided to drive.
What we can say for certain is that she put herself and other people in danger through her selfish decision to get into a car when she must have known she was nowhere near fit to drive.If you suspect someone is drink-driving, please contact us immediately so that we can investigate and get more drink-drivers off the roads.”
People in Sussex can text officers on 65999 with the details of people they suspect of drink or drug driving or visit www.operationcrackdown.co.uk. To keep up to date with officers looking for drink drivers, follow #opdragonfly on Twitter.
If you know someone is driving while over the limit or after taking drugs call 999.