Teaching assistant receives driving ban after drunken crash

Court hears how 28-year-old lost control while driving home after night of drinking in Newbury

A TEACHING assistant at a school in Mortimer has been handed a two-year driving ban and ordered to pay £675 after crashing her car while driving home from a night out drinking with friends.

Katie Hillier, of Abbots Road in Burghfield Common, was sentenced at West Berkshire Magistrates on Thursday after being found guilty of drink driving at an earlier hearing.

The 28-year-old crashed her car while travelling along Bath Road in Padworth on June 22 last year.

The mother-of-one had driven into Newbury to meet friends for a drink before attempting to drive home.

The court heard how after losing control of her Vauxhall Corsa at a roundabout, Miss Hillier then got a lift home from a member of the public.

Prosecuting, Helen Waite told the court that when police officers arrived at her home to question her they could smell alcohol on her breath and a breathaliser test found her to have 91mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, the legal limit being 35mg.

Miss Hillier is then said to have denied that she had been driving the car, claiming it had been stolen.

However CCTV footage showed Miss Hillier getting into the car in Newbury town centre just hours before the crash and DNA evidence retrieved from the airbag was found to match that of Miss Hillier.

After being presented with the evidence, the teaching assistant then claimed to have crashed the car and then consumed a bottle of vodka after arriving back at home.

However magistrates found her guilty of drink driving at a trial in July.

Appearing before West Berkshire Magistrates for the sentencing last week, she was given a five-week curfew at her home address running from 7pm to 7am, seven days a week.

Miss Hiller was disqualified from driving for two years, which could be reduced if she successfully completes an alcohol awareness course.

She was also ordered to pay £615 costs and a £60 victim surcharge.