A WOMAN who had been drinking at a pub only 200 yards from home crashed her Range Rover into the window of Crowland’s Eastern Spice takeaway.
Lynn Wharton failed to stop and was sitting on a sofa at her North Street home when police arrived, Spalding magistrates heard.
Rebecca Ritson, prosecuting, said Wharton spent the afternoon at a pub only “a couple of hundred yards from her address”.
She was seen by a member of the kitchen staff at the takeway sitting in her car with her engine running.
He was concerned about her because she seemed “a bit floppy”.
A few minutes later the vehicle was up against the wall of the takeaway and the shop window was smashed.
Miss Ritson said Wharton then drove home.
She said: “When police found Mrs Wharton she was at home sitting on a sofa. She appeared to be visibly in drink.”
Solicitor Mike Alexander, mitigating, said Wharton had been to the pub with her husband and his mother and father – it was the first time they had been together for a number of years and it was “a relatively stressful situation”.
He said the Whartons’ home was only 20 houses down from the pub and there was no indication she was going to drive at all.
Mr Alexander said: “This lady doesn’t normally drink more than a couple of glasses of wine. She can’t explain why she got into the car”.
Mr Alexander said Wharton fell off her horse about a week before the crash.
He continued: “Such was the impact on her head that her helmet was completely destroyed.”
Mr Alexander said he suspected concussion may have played some part. Wharton was taking medication at the time which she afterwards discovered should not be mixed with alcohol.
After the crash and before the police arrived, Wharton’s husband had poured a whisky for her.
Wharton (58) pleaded guilty to driving with 93 microgrammes of alcohol in breath – more than two-and-a-half times the legal limit.
She was banned from driving for 24 months, fined £400 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.
Wharton can cut six months off the ban if she completes a rehabilitation course.
She also admitted failing to stop after the accident on North Street on the same day, May 6, and she was banned for six months to run concurrently.
There was no separate financial penalty.
