Drink driver banned from roads and fined £2,000 after guzzling wine before 2am trip to McDonald's for 89p burger | The Sun

A DRINK driver has been banned from the road after guzzling wine before heading out on a 2am jaunt for an 89p McDonalds hamburger.

Claire Lyon, 51, was slapped with a £2,000 fine after cops caught her driving without her headlights on.


The business executive gave a positive breath sample at the roadside but declined to take a further test at the police station, declaring: "No, I would like to go to court."

Lyon, who earns £61,000 a year as a corporate head-hunter at the American data analytics company Nielsons, was detained after consuming two glasses of wine during a girlie night in with friends.

She was about to return home to her country cottage from Pickmere, near Knutsford, Cheshire when she was asked by a friend to take her for a midnight snack.

At Chester magistrates court Lyon admitted failing to provide a specimen of breath and was disqualified from driving for 20 months.

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She was also fined £1,383, with £673 in costs and a victim surcharge.

Alan Currums, prosecuting, said she had been stopped by police in Middlewich at 1.45am on September 18.

“The police officer was on mobile patrol when he became aware of a Ford vehicle which had no headlights illuminated.

"For that reason, he required it to stop. When speaking to the driver, the defendant, he said she appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

“She accepted that she had had two glasses of wine."

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Mr Currums said that when at the station, Lyon refused to give a sample of breath despite being warned that it would lead to a court appearance and a charge of failing to provide a specimen for analysis.

He said: “She has no convictions recorded against her. It was a deliberate refusal but there was no issue with regard to impaired driving."

In mitigation defence lawyer Michael McEwan said his client was the main carer for her two elderly parents whom she had moved back to the UK from Ireland during the pandemic.

One of her parents is blind and the other has Alzheimer's, Mr McEwan said, and they lived with her for eight months until she found them their own accommodation close to a residential home, where she visits them everyday to look after them.

“This matter is going to make that virtually impossible for her to do now,” he said.

“She has a sister in Lanzarote and a brother in Birmingham and she is the only carer.

''On the day in question she was at work all day and then had gone to look after her parents. Her friend then turned up and then another friend called and invited her to a gathering around their fire pit.

She had two glasses of wine and was making her way home when her friend asked her to go to McDonalds

“It was not her normal car. She had sold her own vehicle and in the car she was using, the lights did not come on automatically.

“She was in sheer panic at the police station over what was going to happen to her parents. She phoned her sister and everything was getting on top of her with her job and caring for her parents.

''At the time she asked if she could see a solicitor but when asked if she knew a criminal solicitor, she said she didn’t.

"It was 2am, she did not know what she was doing. The officer was trying to get a sample and she just basically shut down.

“She is still working full-time and caring for two people on her own, full-time. She is in a position where to consider putting a further burden on her would be too much.

"A financial penalty is something that you can fall back on.”

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Telling the court that she takes home £830 per week from her job, the solicitor added: “You are dealing with a woman with no previous convictions and is caring for two elderly parents.”

Lyon, who is currently also thought to be studying a MSc in Human Resource Management and Development, was offered a chance to reduce her ban by completing a drink drive awareness course.

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