A highly qualified doctor has been suspended after admitting she ‘could have killed someone’ when she drank an entire bottle of vodka before getting behind the wheel and crashing into several cars outside a school.
Dr Kate Eve confirmed she drank 250ml of the spirit before she drove a ‘short distance’ to a school – a journey she had undertaken ‘numerous times’ before.
After crashing her car, she was arrested and found to be over four times the legal limit.
Having been handed a suspended prison sentence, she has now been suspended from working for six months to ‘maintain public confidence’.
Dr Eve graduated from the University of Leeds in 2003 and became a qualified GP in 2010. She completed a qualification in substance misuse in 2017 after starting at York Street Health Practice in Leeds two years earlier.
Dr Eve also provided healthcare to homeless or vulnerable people or those seeking asylum.
In July 2024 she was convicted of driving a motor vehicle in a public place having consumed excess alcohol.
She was arrested and charged, having crashed into parked cars at a school while dropping off a child – known only as Child J.
Dr Kate Eve of York Street Health Practice in Leeds (pictured) has been suspended after admitting she ‘could have killed someone’ when she drank an entire bottle of vodka before getting behind the wheel and crashing into several cars outside a school
It was found that she had 151 micrograms per 100 millilitres of alcohol in her breath – over four times the 35 microgram limit.
She admitted that she had drunk most of a 250ml bottle of vodka prior to the child asking for a lift.
Dr Eve said she thought she would be fine as it was only a short trip that she had done several times before.
She was handed an eight-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months, for the incident in July 2024.
Dr Eve was also required to undertake 100 hours of unpaid work and disqualified from driving for three years.
At a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing she accepted full responsibility for her actions and said that every time she goes past the school she thinks about the possibility she could have killed someone.
She said that an ‘apology was not a big enough word’.
The tribunal decided that she should be suspended from working for six months.
A hearing at the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester (pictured) decided that she should be suspended from working for six months
Julia Oakford, chair of the MPTS hearing, said: ‘The Tribunal took into account Dr Eve’s evidence that she knew she was under the influence of alcohol at the time she decided to drive the motor vehicle, but could not tell [Child J] that she was intoxicated.
‘Her evidence was that she had rationalised her decision to herself at the time that it was only a short distance to the school, she had done the journey numerous times and she would be okay.
‘The Tribunal considered that Dr Eve took a calculated risk. Dr Eve’s actions had the potential to harm herself, [Child J] and the wider public.
‘She herself stated in her evidence that she could have killed someone due to her actions.
‘The Tribunal was satisfied that Dr Eve has demonstrated sufficient insight into the concerns arising from the behaviour that led to her conviction.
‘The Tribunal was mindful that in its determination on impairment, it had assessed Dr Eve’s actions to pose a medium level of risk to public protection.
‘The Tribunal considered that the seriousness of her conviction and the consequent risk cannot be addressed with a period of conditional registration.
‘The Tribunal considered that an immediate order is necessary in this case in order to properly protect, promote and maintain the health, safety, and wellbeing of the public.’
