Drink Drive Ban For Hampshire Mum

18 June 2013, 10:54 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A woman has been banned for three years and fined after she crashed her car while drunk and with her three children inside.

Alison Norris, 45, had a row with her boyfriend and decided to drive and see him and took her three children aged five, eight and 10 dressed in their pyjamas to the vehicle, Winchester Crown Court heard.

She had only managed to get a few yards from her home in Chandler's Ford, Hampshire, on December 30 2010 before she lost control and crashed. The three children were not injured.

Police were called and she was found to have 108 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, that's three times the legal limit.

The judge, Mr Justice Burnett, said the reading was ``extremely high''. He disqualified her from driving for three years, fined her £500 and ordered she pay a victim surcharge of £50. Divorcee, Norris, had pleaded guilty to the charge at an earlier hearing.

"Nobody with that amount of alcohol in their breath could maintain control of their car and react to difficult circumstances with the skill somebody sober could do," he said.

"The fact that you had three children in the car is a serious aggravating feature. It's difficult to fathom what led you, knowing you had too much to drink, to put the children in the car and drive."

Norris, who had no previous convictions, was told that her disqualification would be reduced by 25% if she completed a driver awareness course.