Drunk-driving awareness course leader convicted of drunk-driving

A drunk-driving awareness course leader who was three times over the drunk-driving limit one morning has been banned from driving for 26 months. But Alison Baker, who ran courses for Devon County Council, was allowed to go on one of the drink-drive awareness course she used to run - which would see her reduce her ban by a quarter. Baker, now 60, had twice driven to her local filling station to buy bottles of wine within a couple of hours of one morning last May. The garage cashier was concerned she was not in a fit state to drive on the second visit and tipped off police. Officers turned up at her home in Pinhoe near Exeter, Devon, and when she eventually answered the door she was so drunk she had to grip walls and furniture to stand up. Baker had denied drunk-driving but was convicted after a trial last month - she blamed the high reading on post driving consumption and said she had downed one and a half bottles of wine in around ten minutes before the police came to her home.
But the district judge rejected her account and she was convicted. Prosecutor Sonia Croft said Baker was a trainer on drink drive awareness courses and said she should not be allowed her to go on such a course. She told Exeter magistrates court that Baker would know the ins and outs of the course and would gain nothing from it. But defense lawyer Vanessa Francis said the Crown's case to prevent her client from paying to go such a course was "spiteful and unnecessarily punitive".
She said this was Baker's first drunk-driving offense and it would be unfair to refuse a first time offender the opportunity to go on the course where each individual has to talk about the offense they have committed. District Judge Stephen Nicholls agreed and offered her a place on a course. He banned her from driving for 26 months but that could be reduced by 26 weeks if she passes the course by August 2016. She was also given an 18 month community order and told to pay a total of £430 in costs.