A school worker Amelia Beard has admitted drink-driving while pregnant after being caught at Abbeywood Retail Park.
The 30-year-old had 106 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath when police stopped her at the retail park in Stoke Gifford. The limit is 35 microgrammes.
Beard, from Chippenham, was driving a KIA Picanto at 2.30pm on May 30, Bristol Magistrates' Court heard today (June 20).
The school administrator has a five-year-old daughter and is pregnant.
Prosecutor May Li said: “An officer saw her at a roundabout next to the retail park. They directed her away from the roundabout and spoke to her as they had concerns she was under the influence of alcohol.”
The officers saw she had glazed eyes, her speech was slurred and she seemed “agitated”.
'Astonished' by reading
Her representative told the court: “Mrs Beard appears before you in a state of very great anxiety. She is shocked to find herself before the court.
“She appreciates how very seriously the courts treat these offences. She has suffered anxiety and depression most of her life.
“At the time of this offence her medication for depression was being reduced because she had recently discovered she was pregnant.”
She had been in Bristol to meet her sister for lunch, and later drank some wine, her lawyer said.
“She was astonished to learn of the breath reading, and is adamant she drunk nothing like what one would expect to produce a reading of this sort,” the representative added.
Beard was ordered to pay £170 and banned from driving for 24 months.
A one-year community order was imposed with up to 10 days of rehabilitation.
You can follow live updates from magistrates' court today here.
