A chemistry teacher found drunk in her car with two children has been spared jail and allowed to keep driving after a court ruled a ban would lead to the loss of her job.
Katherine Campbell, 38, who had been drinking gin, was reported to police by a passerby when she was seen stumbling in a stupor while putting the youngsters in the back of her BMW 3 series.
A roadside breath test showed Campbell – who teaches at Alsager School near Crewe – was over three times the limit.
But she denied intending to drive the car and claimed to have been waiting for her partner to do so instead. The children, aged five and six, were unharmed.
At Crewe magistrates’ court, Campbell, from Macclesfield and who already had six points on her licence, faced a month in prison and a driving ban after she admitted being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle and two charges of being drunk in charge of a child under the age of seven.
But she was allowed to carry on driving under ‘exceptional hardship’ rules despite her getting another ten points on her licence – meaning she will be behind the wheel with 16 points.
She was also ordered to wear a so-called ‘sobriety tag’ under the terms of a 90-day alcohol abstinence order.
Campbell claimed if she lost her licence she would need ‘two trains and two buses’ for the 17-mile commute to her work rather than her usual 40-minute trip by car.
Katherine Campbell, 38, who had been drinking gin, was reported to police by a passerby when she was seen stumbling in a stupor while putting the youngsters in the back of her BMW 3 series
At Crewe magistrates’ court, Campbell, who already had six points on her licence, faced a month in prison and a driving ban after she admitted being drunk in charge of a motor vehicle and two charges of being drunk in charge of a child under the age of seven
The incident occurred on May 2 this year when Campbell had picked up the children before visiting her parents’ house in the Prestbury area.
She then visited neighbours ‘and drank two or three gin and soda waters’. The court heard the passerby confiscated Campbell’s car keys.
The two children were taken to a nearby house.
Magistrate Susan Taylor told Campbell: ‘If you come before the court again for any offence to do with driving, you will get a lengthy ban and I mean lengthy. Please do not be back in here again.’
