A drunk Sainsbury’s home delivery driver fell out of her van after crashing into a customer’s hedge in Wilton, near Marlborough.
Remanded in police custody overnight, Ellen Townsend, 44, appeared before magistrates this morning charged with drink driving following the incident earlier this week.
The defendant, of Swindon Road, Stratton, Swindon, is said to have pulled up on a customer’s driveway, surprising the shopper who had already had his groceries delivered sometime earlier.
As the van reverse down his driveway, he’s heard a scraping noise as it hit his hedge. Going outside to investigate, the customer found the van on his drive at a 90-degree angle.
He looked into the vehicle to find Townsend appearing ‘confused’, adding it seemed she couldn’t understand him and couldn’t look at him. The customer also spotted damage to a rear light, with the smashed plastic in his garden hedge.
Townsend had then fallen out of the vehicle. On her feet, she was described as ‘swaying and unsteady’. As a result of what he had witnessed, the customer phoned the police.
Officers arrived at the scene and the driver failed a roadside breath test. She was taken to custody where she blew a reading of 107 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The crown prosecutor said she had told officers during an interview that she doesn’t remember her shift at work, her arrest or providing a sample of breath.
Defending, her solicitor said his client was alcohol dependant.
‘She was filled with remorse and dread’ about what she had done, he told the bench. He said Townsend had been drinking the night before her shift, but started work at 11am the next day.
He asked the magistrates to take into consideration that she will likely lose her job at Sainsbury’s – a role she had held for just four months. Adding that after today’s conviction she would become “dead meat as a delivery driver”. He said she suffers from depression and anxiety and had worked as a keyworker throughout the pandemic.
Magistrates imposed a 24-month community order with 160 days unpaid work and 20 rehabilitation activity days. She was disqualified for 26 months, which would be reduced by 26 weeks if she completes a drink-drive rehabilitation course.
