A mum-of-two who crashed into a shopper’s car while trying to park outside a Vicars Cross store in the middle of the day was three times over the legal limit.
Shocked shopper Karen Jones was sitting in her vehicle outside the Spar in Green Lane when the car reversed into her before hitting a boulder, a court heard.
Driver Heather Heiney had drunk a bottle of wine in the hours before driving to the store at 2pm on December 28, after being worried about her grown-up son.
When she was breathalysed the mother-of-two, of Coppins Lane in Vicars Cross, had 109ml of alcohol in 100ml of breath – more than three times the legal limit.
The 60-year-old was disqualified from driving for two years after pleading guilty to drink driving on Wednesday (January 28).
She was also sentenced to 100 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £60 victim surcharge during the hearing at Chester Magistrates Court.
When questioned by police shortly after the incident Heiney said she was ‘worried about her son’, said Rob Youds prosecuting.
“She was asked if she was aware she had collided with another car, she said she hadn’t but admitted that it could have been the case.”
No one was hurt in the collision, the court heard.
Heiney, who was said to have been suffering from depression, drank some wine at 7am and finished off a bottle from the fridge as she was extremely worried about her son who she couldn’t get in contact with.
“She has not had taken a drop of alcohol since this incident,” said Chris Johnson, defending, who said Heiney’s son had returned home from living abroad and had been struggling to find employment, which he now had, easing his mother’s worries.
“She does not have an alcohol problem, she was using it as a coping mechanism for what was happening.”
Heiney, who has no previous convictions or cautions to her name, will also partake in a drink driver’s rehabilitation course.
