A guest house owner from Pembroke found slumped as the wheel of her car in the town’s railway station car park has been charged with drink-driving in court.
Fifty-seven-year-old Deborah Elizabeth Robinson, of Upper Lamphey Road, appeared at Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to a charge of driving her Mercedes on a road between Carew and Pembroke, after exceeding the prescribed limit of alcohol.
Prosecutor Vaughan Pritchard-Jones told the court that it was 5 pm on December 13, when police were called by a witness driving behind Mrs. Robinson’s car, who described her as continuously crossing the central white line on the A477, causing vehicles travelling in the opposite direction to take ‘evasive action’.
“When police officers caught up with the vehicle, Mrs. Robinson was found sitting behind the wheel in the car park of Pembroke railway station, clearly under the influence.
“Her eyes were glazed and her speech was slurred, and initially she became agitated and refused to give a roadside sample, but did so in the end which proved positive.
A reading of 95 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath was given at the police station.
“She was just over two and a half times the legal limit, and told officers in an interview that she’d drunk four 250ml glasses of wine, which is a litre. Mrs. Robinson did express remorse and said she was sorry for her actions,” continued Mr. Pritchard-Jones.
Defence solicitor Mike Kelleher told the court that his client apologises profusely for what happened.
“She runs a guest house with her husband and on that day she had met up with friends and one thing led to another. She has never been in trouble before, and never even had so much as a parking ticket!
“Mrs. Robinson is so ashamed of what she did and so disgusted with herself, that she’s not driven since,” he added.
Magistrates handed the defendant a 12 month community order, with the requirement to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work.
She was disqualified from driving for 25 months, and ordered to pay prosecution costs of £85 and an £85 victim surcharge.
“This was a very serious offence and could have easily had much more serious consequences,” magistrates told the defendant.