News / Drink driver says she’s unfit to drive
A SHETLAND woman who said she could not remember being at the wheel of her car when she was arrested for drink driving last month has been banned for two years after admitting drink driving at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.
Tracey Birrell had rolled her car down a small embankment at the Hamarsgarth housing estate, near her house at 48 Leaside, Mossbank, just before midnight on 10 September.
The 37 year old mother of two woke a neighbour when she revved the engine trying to drive the car back on to the road.
The neighbour called the police who found her slumped across the front seat of her car. When they breathalysed her she was more than twice the legal limit for drink driving.
Birrell told the court she did not think she was medically fit to drive because she suffers from fits and blackouts due to a medical condition, but the authorities had not taken her licence away despite her requests.
When Sheriff Graeme Napier asked her why she had been driving that night, she replied: “I don’t even remember driving.”
The sheriff fined her £500 saying the figure had been reduced due to her “straitened financial circumstances”. He also disqualified her for two years, telling her she would have to resit her test before she could get her licence back.
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