Worksop woman’s drive for cigarettes cost £471 after she crashed into another car

Sophie Richardson hit a Renault in her Vauxhall Astra, at the junction of Bracebridge Road and High Hoe Road, at 8.50am, on April 2, said prosecutor Andrew Conboy.

She told officers she had been drinking at a friend's house and, when she woke up feeling fine, went to buy cigarettes.

She said she didn't know how the collision happened but knew the road well, said Mr Conboy. And she became extremely upset when she learned there had been a child in the other car.

A breath test revealed she had 76 microgrammes of alcohol when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Mark Stocks, mitigating, said she was cooperative with the police and had no previous convictions.

She was in the process of separating from her husband and had taken refuge with a friend, he added.

"She had no idea she was comfortably over the limit," he said. "If she had she would not have undertaken that journey."

Richardson, aged 32, of Anston Avenue, Worksop, admitted drink driving when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The presiding magistrate told her: "This is going to be an expensive packet of cigarettes."

She was disqualified for 20 months but will receive a 20-week discount if she completes a rehabilitation course before May 2024.

She was £276 and ordered to pay a £110 surcharge and £85 costs.