Drink driver caught in Worksop after cancer diagnosis

A woman who received the devastating news that she has cancer downed wine before driving through Worksop, a court heard.
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Barbara Smith’s Fiat Panda was spotted going the wrong way around a mini-roundabout, on Potter Street, at 4.50pm, on March 31.

“An officer outside the police station saw she was using a mobile phone as he drove towards him,” said prosecutor Donna Fawcett.

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A test revealed Smith had 83 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

She was in court for 2008 for two matters of driving while disqualified.

Michael Little, mitigating, said Smith had dropped off her cousin and a friend at the cinema and was on the way back to collect them when she was stopped.

“Unfortunately after returning home she received a phone call from her GP with the devastating news that she has cancer,” he said.

“She consumed wine and then drove to collect her cousin.

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“She says - “I know it was the wrong thing to do, but my head was in an absolute mess.””

Mr Little added she had recently marked the three year anniversary of two of her brothers’ deaths, both from cancer.

He said she denied going the wrong way on the mini-roundabout.

Smith, 40, of Clarence Square, Rotherham, admitted drink driving and using a handheld phone while driving, when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

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She was fined £150, and must pay a government surcharge of £30 and £85 court costs.

She was banned for 22 months, but was offered a drink drive rehab course which will reduce the disqualification by 167 days if completed before July 2019.