Owner of cleaning business six times the drink-drive limit when she crashed near Auldearn
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Inverness Sheriff Court heard that a woman had argued with her husband before she crashed her car after drinking.
Monika Baczkiewicz (42) of George Wilson Road, Auldearn, jumped into the vehicle on the night of April 23, last year.
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh told Sheriff David Harvie that the woman was wearing only her underwear and a dressing gown when a police officer found her at the scene, a mile from her home.
"A roadside test done at the time gave a reading of 124mcg of alcohol," she said. "Two officers then later went to the locus but by that time she had left the scene."
The legal drink-drive limit is 22mcg.
However Baczkiewicz pleaded guilty to a reading of only 83mcg, taken after the formal test conducted four hours later when the two officers traced her to her home.
Defence solicitor Robert Cruickshank told the court: "There was some form of matrimonial discord and she foolishly and rashly jumped in her car and had a collision.
"The marriage is long and persisting and she and her husband work together so he can do the driving."
Sheriff Harvie fined her £440 and banned her from driving for 14 months.
He told Baczkiewicz: "You were driving with considerably more alcohol when you had the accident. It is fortunate you were OK and no-one else was involved, because you were not in control of the vehicle."
The sheriff certified her as suitable for the drink-drive rehabilitation course which she must fund herself. If she successfully completes it, she will get a three month discount on the disqualification.
"I hope that it will remind you – if you don't know already – of your recklessness and the danger you presented to others," the sheriff told her.
