Twice the limit - absolute discharge!!!

Twice the limit - absolute discharge!!!

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hornetrider

Original Poster:

63,161 posts

204 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
WHAT THE ACTUAL fk.

Article said:
A cosmetic surgery boss caught drink driving has escaped a ban after insisting she did not realise there was vodka in her breakfast orange juice.

Michelle Butterworth, 37, said she was getting ready for work the morning after a leaving party when she drank from a glass on her kitchen top. She then crashed her Renault Clio into another car at a pedestrian crossing at 8.40am and was found to be almost twice the legal limit.

She said that, after returning home from the police station, she discovered the orange juice she had drunk that morning had been left out from the previous night's party and contained vodka.

At Manchester magistrates court this week, Butterworth, who runs her own practice giving anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers and lip enhancements in Salford, admitted drink driving. But she was handed an absolute discharge and avoided a disqualification after magistrates said they were 'special reasons' not to ban her from the roads.

The incident occurred last November after law graduate Butterworth threw a party to mark her moving to Harbourne in Birmingham.

She told the court: 'The night before we had been packing up boxes as I was due to leave Manchester and move to Birmingham and so I cooked a chilli and some drinks with friends at my house.

'I had three large glasses of white wine and I stopped drinking at around 9.30 or 10pm that night. I had work the next day and I am injecting people's faces so I couldn't be feeling rough my mind has to be clear.'

She added: 'Two of my friends were there and my son and three of his friends. My son was drinking too as he was having a leaving party kind of thing. When I woke up the next morning I felt absolutely fine. I got up and showered and put on my hospital scrubs. There was a glass of orange juice on the side and it was in a pint glass. I didn't know there was alcohol inside the orange juice - I have had two operations on my nose so my taste and sense of smell. I loaded up my car up and drove to work. I was taking two passengers to the Trafford Centre and was turning to speak to them to see where they wanted dropping off and that's when I went into the back of the car. I couldn't get my head round it all so when I get home I discussed it with my son and I had drunk the orange juice and that is when the penny dropped.'

Her son Lewis Woods, 19, said: 'I was having a few drinks with my friends because we were moving to Birmingham.

'I poured the juice I remembered that my friend doesn't like orange juice with bits in it so I ended up just leaving it on the side and we called it a night. I think I must have poured around four shots of vodka into the pint glass.'

But prosecutor Marion Nolan told the court: 'The police officer who saw Mrs Butterworth at the station said her eyes were glazed over and that she smelt of alcohol.

'The expert evidence does not agree with her version of events; he says it does not add up. He says the vodka she drunk still wouldn't account for the volume of alcohol found in her breath.'

Defence lawyer Paul Shepherd told JPs. 'You've heard all the evidence in this case and it is for you to decide whether Ms Butterworth was knowingly over the drink drive limit when she left her house to go to work that morning or if you can apply special reasons to this case on the basis of a spiked drink argument.'

Butterworth was told by a magistrate: 'The evidence of yourself and your son was clear and consistent. We fine on the basis of a spiked drink argument, special reasons apply and it would not be suitable for us to disqualify you from driving.'
Link:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4334674/Mo...

Turkish91

1,084 posts

201 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
What a load of ste! Unbelievable decision!

Vaud

50,291 posts

154 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
'I had three large glasses of white wine and I stopped drinking at around 9.30 or 10pm that night. I had work the next day and I am injecting people's faces so I couldn't be feeling rough my mind has to be clear.'

So a bottle of wine the night before performing minor operations on peoples faces. Super.

spookly

4,011 posts

94 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
That is ridiculous. The story is clearly a made up loads of b0ll0cks anyway.
I think you'd realise if you were drinking a glass of OJ with 4 shots of vodka in it.

carreauchompeur

17,830 posts

203 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Well, it's a ballsy and inventive defence. Clearly bks to the casual observer however enough to introduce reasonable doubt...

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Hard to comment when we don't really know if the legal limit, or twice the legal limit, impairs more than the natural ability of some alcohol free drivers.

Drunk driving is dangerous, but I've never heard any hard facts to justify the merit of the legal limit, which is clearly not drunk driving.

Before the hysteria became widespread, we must have been way over today's limit on our regular rural pub crawls in the 60s.

HantsRat

2,369 posts

107 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
She's 37??? No way.

agtlaw

6,680 posts

205 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
HantsRat said:
She's 37??? No way.
Probably all that vodka.

s3fella

10,524 posts

186 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
HantsRat said:
She's 37??? No way.
Before I clicked the link I guessed what she would look like.





mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
s3fella said:
HantsRat said:
She's 37??? No way.
Before I clicked the link I guessed what she would look like.
I wouldn't accept an invitation to fight...

JQ

5,693 posts

178 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Had she not crashed her car that day, she may have been carrying out medical procedures on people whilst drunk. Not a great advert for her business.


KevinCamaroSS

11,555 posts

279 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Hardly a good advert for her own services is she? 37, more like 47!

Granfondo

12,241 posts

205 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
mybrainhurts said:
Hard to comment when we don't really know if the legal limit, or twice the legal limit, impairs more than the natural ability of some alcohol free drivers.

Drunk driving is dangerous, but I've never heard any hard facts to justify the merit of the legal limit, which is clearly not drunk driving.

Before the hysteria became widespread, we must have been way over today's limit on our regular rural pub crawls in the 60s.
What a load of pish!

Dammit

3,790 posts

207 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
This struck me as the strangest part of the story: "threw a party to mark her moving to Harbourne in Birmingham."


mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Hard to comment when we don't really know if the legal limit, or twice the legal limit, impairs more than the natural ability of some alcohol free drivers.

Drunk driving is dangerous, but I've never heard any hard facts to justify the merit of the legal limit, which is clearly not drunk driving.

Before the hysteria became widespread, we must have been way over today's limit on our regular rural pub crawls in the 60s.
What a load of pish!
Indoctrination rules ok...

Granfondo

12,241 posts

205 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
mybrainhurts said:
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Hard to comment when we don't really know if the legal limit, or twice the legal limit, impairs more than the natural ability of some alcohol free drivers.

Drunk driving is dangerous, but I've never heard any hard facts to justify the merit of the legal limit, which is clearly not drunk driving.

Before the hysteria became widespread, we must have been way over today's limit on our regular rural pub crawls in the 60s.
What a load of pish!
Indoctrination rules ok...
Your name is perfect!

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Hard to comment when we don't really know if the legal limit, or twice the legal limit, impairs more than the natural ability of some alcohol free drivers.

Drunk driving is dangerous, but I've never heard any hard facts to justify the merit of the legal limit, which is clearly not drunk driving.

Before the hysteria became widespread, we must have been way over today's limit on our regular rural pub crawls in the 60s.
What a load of pish!
Indoctrination rules ok...
Your name is perfect!
Thanks. Perhaps you could cut through the perceptions planted in your head and give me some figures that would convince me the legal limit is a valid measure?

Granfondo

12,241 posts

205 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
mybrainhurts said:
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Hard to comment when we don't really know if the legal limit, or twice the legal limit, impairs more than the natural ability of some alcohol free drivers.

Drunk driving is dangerous, but I've never heard any hard facts to justify the merit of the legal limit, which is clearly not drunk driving.

Before the hysteria became widespread, we must have been way over today's limit on our regular rural pub crawls in the 60s.
What a load of pish!
Indoctrination rules ok...
Your name is perfect!
Thanks. Perhaps you could cut through the perceptions planted in your head and give me some figures that would convince me the legal limit is a valid measure?
Nothing will convince a drink driver their in the wrong!

loose cannon

6,029 posts

240 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
You do have to wonder how the hell she got away with that, absolute shocker the courts have made a total mockery of the police let alone anybody else yuck

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

254 months

Tuesday 21st March 2017
quotequote all
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Granfondo said:
mybrainhurts said:
Hard to comment when we don't really know if the legal limit, or twice the legal limit, impairs more than the natural ability of some alcohol free drivers.

Drunk driving is dangerous, but I've never heard any hard facts to justify the merit of the legal limit, which is clearly not drunk driving.

Before the hysteria became widespread, we must have been way over today's limit on our regular rural pub crawls in the 60s.
What a load of pish!
Indoctrination rules ok...
Your name is perfect!
Thanks. Perhaps you could cut through the perceptions planted in your head and give me some figures that would convince me the legal limit is a valid measure?
Nothing will convince a drink driver their in the wrong!
I don't drink and drive. In fact, I have a drink probably once a month. So, are you going to answer my question?