A Swindon drink driver who crashed her car ‘may have been spiked’, a court heard.
25-year-old Emma Whelan visited two nightclubs on 24 March this year – where she claims she consumed just two alcoholic beverages.
Keith Ballinger, prosecuting at Swindon Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday (9 April), said that a taxi driver called the police to report a car swerving and hitting a tree and a lamppost.
When officers arrived at the scene in Okus Road, Old Town, at around 3am, they found the defendant inspecting damage to her damaged 2022 Peugeot 208 at the roadside.
Whelan failed the roadside breath test and she was arrested. In custody, she provided an evidential reading of 122 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – where the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.
The defendant, of Oasthouse Close, Swindon, pleaded guilty to drink driving.
Solicitor Gordon Hotson, defending, said his client is “still at a loss, even today, to understand how she has found herself in this position”.
He told the court that she went to see a friend who works at a club and had one drink, before going onto another establishment with a group of people who bought her a Jägerbomb.
Mr Hotson said that Whelan does not remember what happened after that drink, and believes that she may have been spiked.
He added that the incident was “utterly out of character for this young lady”, who works as a reports analyst, is doing a bachelor’s degree and is due to start a master’s degree in September.
He said the disqualification from driving won’t affect her work, because she works from home.
Magistrates imposed a 12-month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work and she was banned from driving for 29 months. She must also pay court costs.
