A drink driving mum-of-three has been banned from getting behind the wheel after losing control of her car and ploughing into a field in East Lothian.
Ilze Podniece was driving Honda Jazz when the vehicle hurtled off the road at a corner and collided with a tree near Gifford.
The 55-year-old, who worked as a vet in her native Latvia, wasn’t injured in the smash in East Lothian but was found to be over the drink-drive limit.
Podniece appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Tuesday and pled guilty to drink driving.
She admitted having 45 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit being 22mg.
Fiscal depute Callum Thomson said a witness saw the Honda “travelling at speed” when it approached a corner on the Duns Road.
Mr Thomson said the vehicle’s speed was “excessive for the road” and it “failed to negotiate the corner”.
The prosecutor said the Honda careered into a field before hitting a tree and coming to a stop.
The court heard the crash took place at around 6pm on September 30 last year.
Defence agent Richard Freeman said his client, who previously worked as a vet in the Latvian farming industry before coming to the UK, had no previous convictions and a clean driving licence.
The solicitor said Podniece’s veterinary qualifications had been “non-transferable” and she was currently a support worker in a care home.
Explaining what happened before the crash, Mr Freeman said Podniece had gone to friend’s house, where some of her belongings were stored, to collect them.
Both had been drinking, he added, and Podniece “lost sight of how much she had to drink”.
Mr Freeman said: “She felt fine when she set off, but clearly she wasn’t.”
Along with a 14-month driving ban, Sheriff John Cook fined Podniece, of Cockenzie, East Lothian, a total of £720.
