Portadown woman found hiding in hedge had been drink driving

Sara McAvoy (27), of Linen Hall in Portadown, came to the attention of police officers on the morning of September 18 this year at Mount Road near Nutts Corner in Co Antrim.

A prosecutor told Antrim Magistrates' Court, sitting in Ballymena courthouse on Tuesday of this week (October 25), that at around 9.30am on the morning in question, police were waved down by a member of the public who had spotted a car in a ditch.

Police saw two people near the vehicle but by the time the officers got stopped, the two individuals had "made off" and were then "located in hedges further down the road".

The defendant admitted that she had been driving the vehicle at the time of the incident and that it had ended up in the ditch because she had reversed "too far".

The court was informed that while in custody, she had recorded an alcohol in breath reading of 51 - the legal alcohol driving limit is 35.

A defence lawyer told the court that it had been a case of "the morning after the night before" and said that the defendant had "panicked" after what had happened and then "made off".

District Judge Nigel Broderick banned the defendant from driving for a year and she was also ordered to pay a £300 fine.