Woman found slumped in car four times limit

Elaine Manaley, 42, was discovered with her eyes closed and seatbelt still on after her husband dialled 999. She had drunk four bottles of wine only hours before she gave his son a lift to school in her silver Land Rover Freelander.

The 17-year-old boy had driven the first half of the four-mile round trip before his stepmother – a nurse – took the wheel, driving past scores of schoolchildren heading to lessons.

A traffic constable spent several minutes trying to wake her up after Mrs Manaley's husband Neil told the emergency operator: "I want to report a drink driver – my wife Elaine Manaley. She's an alcoholic."

Tests revealed she had 313mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood – one of the highest readings the officers had ever recorded. The legal limit is 80mg.

Manaley was given a six-month prison sentence suspended for a year and banned from driving for three years last week after being convicted of drinking driving following a series of hearings and a trial.

Presiding magistrate Michael Crosby said: "Clearly the reading – four times the legal limit – is exceedingly high, so high one police officer said it was the highest he'd seen in his life.

"When driving you must have been a great danger to the public. The fact you were driving close to a school at a time when many children were going to school clearly aggravates the offence."

At a trial in March, Harrogate Magistrates' Court had heard how Manaley had sunk four bottles of dry white wine between 10am on November 13, 2008 and 2am the next day before passing out on the downstairs sofa of her home in Kirk Deighton.

In the morning, her teenage stepson drove to Wetherby High School, then drunken Manaley got into the driver's seat for the return journey.

The court heard at around 9.30am a 999 called was received from her husband, saying: "I want to report a drink driver. My wife Elaine Manaley has been drinking on and off all week. She's an alcoholic.

"She's in the car slumped across the steering wheel."

Traffic Constable Andrew MacLeod subsequently found Manaley in the driver's seat of the Freelander with her eyes closed and seatbelt on. He was unable to rouse her for several minutes and a police video showed her dishevelled and wobbling as she was escorted to the police car, watched by her anxious husband.

Constable MacLeod said: "She was very unsteady on her feet... extremely drunk. The level we are talking about in 14 years still remains one of the highest I have seen."

She was tested again eight hours later and will still twice the legal driving limit. Manaley, who has been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, screamed and cried in the cells.

Dr Rachel Pickering, who carried out a blood test at the police station, told the court that she stank of alcohol, struggled to walk and kept her eyes closed unless she was talking. She was so drunk she was unable to assess her mental state.

Manaley told police she remembered driving home, saying: "I'm massively sorry for what I've done. I hold my hands up to what I've done. I knew I wasn't safe to drive. I was drunk all week on and off.

"All I can remember is driving thinking I have got to pull over, I have got to get out of the car."

She finally left the station just before 10pm when officers judged she had sobered up.

She had denied a charge of driving while over the limit. Several

previous hearings had taken place to decide whether she was fit to plead.

Defending, Simon Phillips QC said Manaley, who has no previous convictions, suffered from a "severe mental disorder". He added: "Her husband has acted entirely responsibly from the outset and has continued to be supportive.

"She has cooperated with the authorities and is doing what she can to address her problems."

Manaley was also given a two-year community order where she will be supervised by a probation officer.

She was ordered to do 250 hours of unpaid community work, attend a drink driving rehabilitation course, and pay 2,325 costs.