A drink-driving corporate lawyer who claimed she was veering “all over the road” in her Range Rover after downing a friend’s homemade Kombucha tea has been freed from jail.
Louise Taylor, 41, won an appeal against the 10-week sentence which was imposed on October 8 at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court.
Judge David Hale, sitting with two magistrates at Mold Crown Court, said it had been a stressful time for Taylor. Her late mother had been in a care home for 13 months and receiving end-of-life support.
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Taylor was due to see her for the first time in 13 months during the pandemic, the court heard. “All three of us take the view we would have suspended the sentence because she has no previous convictions. There’s no history of alcoholism,” Judge Hale said.
The crown court hadn’t heard arguments about the fermented drink unlike the original case when she tried to dodge a ban. Taylor had said her friend had told her the “disgusting” herbal drink was good for gut health. “I didn’t believe it was alcoholic,” she said previously.
Her breath-alcohol count that night in April was 135mg when stopped after police followed her on the A55 between Holywell and St Asaph. The legal limit is 35mg. The prosecution said she had nearly collided with other vehicles while overtaking on the dual carriageway and was “all over the road”.
“She must have known something was very wrong with her driving,” the judge remarked. Taylor, of Holmes Chapel Road, Sandbach, Cheshire, had ignored a pursuing police car and its blue lights for six miles. “But there was no accident,” the judge added. “In view of the problems there clearly are in her life we would have suspended the sentence.”
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Taylor had served 13 days in prison and the judge said the suspension of the remaining eight weeks would achieve no purpose. “We allow the appeal and order her immediate release,” Judge Hale said.
A 32-month driving ban was imposed which she can reduce by taking a drink-drivers’ course.
Barrister Jade Tufail, for Taylor, told the judge that single Taylor was a successful solicitor with no previous convictions. Previously it was stated she took home more than £66,000 a year working as a corporate lawyer for a bank.
Explaining her personal life situation Ms Tufail added: “All she had left was her career.”
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