Dunedin woman caught drink driving ‘well over limit’ with kids in the car

A woman who drove when she was more than five times the legal alcohol limit with her children in the car claimed she drank only two glasses of wine.

Catherine Elizabeth Hobbs, 44, was at home enjoying some wine when she was unexpectedly summoned to pick her son up from music practice, the Dunedin District Court heard last week.

At 5.30pm on January 27, Hobbs was driving along Portobello Rd with her 15-year-old son and her 5-year-old daughter, when she encountered a police checkpoint.

The breath screening test revealed a level higher than 400mcg of alcohol per litre of breathe, so Hobbs was taken to the Dunedin Central Police Station.

The final breath-alcohol result was 1254mcg which community magistrate Sally O’Brien called a “very high level”.

Hobbs claimed that she had consumed two glasses of wine before she drove.

As the woman stood crying in the dock, Counsel Deborah Henderson said “the wine just hit her all at once”.

O’Brien said this was “random offending” - the woman had never appeared before the court before and she had a “very clean driving history”.

Hobbs was sentenced to 60 hours’ community work and disqualified from driving for 28 days, after which she would be subject to the alcohol-interlock provisions.