Retford mum nearly FOUR times over drink drive limit

Worried staff called an ambulance for Sophie Hakin, who had a fit behind the wheel of her Citroen C1, on a garage forecourt on North Road, on July 14.

A test revealed she had 135 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Matthew Taylor, mitigating, said Hakin had a “very difficult” few years, which included a “messy divorce” and her parents were currently looking after her children, aged nine and 12.

“She argued with her partner and consumed a mug of gin and wanted to get away,” he said. “She drove around 600 metres. She was feeling unwell and knew she shouldn’t be driving.”

He said she was due to return to hospital for further treatment.

Hakin, 44, of Holly Road, admitted drink driving when she appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on Wednesday.

District judge Jonathan Taaffe said: “I am not unsympathetic to your problems, but my primary duty is to protect other road users.

“You could have caused carnage on the roads, and you could have ended up killing yourself and others.

“If you carry on in the way you are, your children won’t have a mother to see them through to adulthood, because you will either die in an accident or you will drink yourself to death.”

He handed her a 14 week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and ordered £85 costs and a £115 government surcharge. She was banned from the roads for four years.