Jail for woman who drove while three-and-half times over alcohol limit with child in car

Magistrates were told that Ineta Nejiene, 35, of Chapel Street, had drunk a lot the night before and was still well over the limit when she was stopped.

Nejiene was appearing for sentence at Boston Magistrates Court after her original appearance earlier this month when the case was adjourned for a report from the Probation Service.

Prosecuting, Jim Clare said she was seen driving her Peugeot car in Eastwood Road in the late morning of October 23 with a small child on the rear seat and was seen to drive through a red light.

He said police stopped her car and tried to speak to her but she initially refused to wind down her window.

He said that eventually she did so and it was obvious to the officers that she was under the influence of alcohol and a check revealed also that there was no insurance in force for the car.

After providing a positive breath test, she resisted being arrested, pushing the officer away and trying to get away but she was eventually taken to the police station where she provided a reading of 126 micrograms of alcohol, the legal limit being 35.

The magistrates were told she had two previous convictions for driving with excess alcohol, both in 2014, when she had been banned from driving for 46 months.

Mitigating, Philippa Chatterton said Nejiene had drunk heavily the night before and was still well over the limit at 11.30am the next day when she was stopped by the police.

She said Nejiene had been warned at the previous court hearing that she may go to prison and this had had a dramatic impact on her and she had stopped drinking to excess and was being treated for depression.

The magistrates told her that this was her third appearance for drinking and driving and it had been exacerbated by having an eight-year-old child in the vehicle.

They said she had also exhibited poor driving and had been uninsured and only a custodial sentence was appropriate.

She was sentenced to eight weeks in prison and was banned from driving for four years but was offered the drink drivers' rehabilitation course which will reduce the period of the ban by 48 weeks.

She was also ordered to pay court costs and charges totalling £213 to be paid on her release from prison.