Richmondshire drunk driver banned from the roads for three and a half years

A woman who crashed her car into a ditch when almost three and a half times over the drink-drive limit has been banned for the roads for three and a half years.

Kirsty Eggett, aged 44, of Low Green, Eppleby, a village seven miles north of Richmond, was dealt with at York Magistrates’ Court on Thursday (1 September 2022) after pleading guilty.

The incident happened on Saturday 13 August 2022 when a white Mazda 2 car was reported to have been found abandoned in a ditch with the lights on along Greystone Lane at 10.31pm.

When police arrived at the scene, they found two empty bottles of Prosecco inside the car.

They then received a further report of a woman seen making her way towards Eppleby village on foot from a narrow country lane that was unlit.

Officers located Eggett about half-a-mile away from the car. She was asleep in a grass ditch and was unsteady on her feet when they woke her up.

She had the ignition key to the Mazda and was arrested after failing a road-side breath test recording 119 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit is 35 micrograms.

PC Lauren Batey, of the Hambleton and Richmondshire Neighbourhood Policing Team, led the investigation.

She said: “This is a shocking example of an intoxicated driver who could so easily have caused serious harm to herself and others.

“Drivers who believe the law does not apply to them or think they can get away with it, need to think again before tragedy strikes and lives are ruined.”

As well as the disqualification from driving, Eggett was fined £734 and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £73 and £85 costs.