Worksop drink drive woman ignored plea to get taxi then crashed into another car

When Janet Shackleton was told to get a taxi by a member of the public, on August 26, she swore: “I’m not walking that far.”

Lottie Tyler, prosecuting at Mansfield Magistrates' Court, said Shackleton, aged 53, drove down Raymoth Lane in her Vauxhall Astra, going over speed bumps without stopping and swerving over the road.

She crashed into the back of a car that was queueing at traffic lights.

Police found her in the front seat ‘looking confused, as if she could not understand what was going on’.

A test revealed she had 73 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35mcg.

At the police station she said she had been at a party, but could not find a taxi.

Shackleton, of Shakespeare Street, Worksop, admitted drink-driving.

Donna Pursglove, mitigating, said Shackleton, of previous good character, ‘is at a complete loss as to why she acted so appallingly on that occasion’.

She said there was a ‘very high chance’ she would lose her job as a carer in the community after she is disqualified.

Shackleton was fined £300 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £120 surcharge.

She was banned from driving for 19 months but a rehabilitation course will reduce the disqualification by 19 weeks if she completes it by November 2023.