Police were given the registration of Patricia Scott’s vehicle and they tracked her down to her address, where she was found asleep in bed
Asda in Benwell(Image: ChronicleLive)
A drink-driving pensioner left a supermarket car park after scraping another car and was found sleeping at her home a short time later. Patricia Scott had been out drinking with friends in Newcastle City Centre and returned to her address by bus.
However, the 69-year-old made the foolish decision to then get behind the wheel to drive to Asda, in Benwell, in order to buy more booze. A court heard that, while in the supermarket’s car park, Scott’s car hit another and she drove off.
The police were called and officers managed to track Scott to her home address, where they found her asleep in bed with empty wine bottles in the kitchen. Scott, of Somerset Place, in Elswick, was arrested after she failed a roadside breath test and she later gave a reading of 73mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath when the legal limit is 35mcg.
Scott has now been fined £120, with a further £85 costs and a £48 victim surcharge, and was banned from the roads for 18 months after she pleaded guilty to driving with excess alcohol during a hearing at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court. Prosecutor, Clare Haswell, said police attended Asda on February 25 this year following a report of an accident.
“The driver of a vehicle involved had left the scene and was intoxicated,” Miss Haswell continued. “Her registration was given to the police and the vehicle was registered to an address, which the officers attended.
“They found the vehicle and saw some damage to the front of the vehicle. The officer knocked on the door but got no response. They went to the rear of the property and looked through the curtains and saw a female lying in bed.
“The door was unlocked, so the officers went in. They found the defendant in bed and smelling of intoxicating liquor. Empty bottles of wine were also found in the kitchen.”
The court heard that Scott had one previous conviction on her record from 1990, received a state pension and didn’t accept she had been involved in a collision in the car park. Denise Jackman, defending, told magistrates: “We would say that the damage to her vehicle was already on that car.
“On that afternoon, Mrs Scott arranged to meet friends in the city centre. She went to got a bus into town. She had a couple of drinks and she returned home. Rather stupidly, that was when she decided to drive the short distance to Asda to buy more alcohol.
“She was manoeuvring her car and this woman got out her car. I think, it maybe that the cars had touched. Mrs Scott didn’t feel like she had hit the car and drove home.”
Did you know you can make ChronicleLive a preferred source of North East news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here.
We have a dedicated newsletter for court news and crime updates. It’s free and you can sign up to receive it here. It will keep you up to date with all the latest court cases and sentence updates from around the North East.
