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Drink-driving Connah’s Quay mum crashed into lamppost

Dec 29 2010 by Dave Goodban, Flintshire Chronicle

A MUM was banned from driving for two years after she returned home from her work Christmas party by taxi but then drove to go searching for her missing daughter.

Debra Karen Smith, 48, admitted driving with 93 microgrammes of alcohol in her breath compared to the legal limit of 35, and writing off her Fiat Punto in Chapel Street in Connah’s Quay by driving it into a lamppost.

At Flintshire Magistrates’ Court at Mold Smith, of Chandler’s Court in Connah’s Quay, was also fined £200 with £100 costs.

John Wylde, prosecuting, told how in the early hours of December 11 the defendant arrived home from her party.

An argument took place between her and her oldest daughter, and another daughter left the home.

Police were called, but by then the defendant had been out in the car looking for the girl.

She had crashed, returned home and was in bed when officers found her.

Fiona Larkin, defending, said that last New Year’s Eve Smith’s husband left her. He returned in April, but had since left again.

She said her client only drove a short distance on the night in question.

“At the time she felt that it was a genuine emergency,” she said. “She is extremely remorseful.”

The defendant worked in a pharmaceutical laboratory and had never been in trouble before, the court heard.

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