Mum Drove With Toddler Son While Nearly Three Times Drinks Limit After Birthday Bash

Drinker's: Fearon and The Rose pub

A mother, who drove home from a pub birthday party with her four year-old son in the car while nearly three times the drink-drive limit, staggered to the front door and "rambled" to police when officers arrived to arrest her.

PA Henrietta Fearon, 34, downed Pimm's and wine during the afternoon bash at the trendy Fulham bar, but a shocked eye-witness dialled 999 after spotting the obviously intoxicated defendant getting into her black Mini outside.

First-time offender Fearon, who works for a chartered surveyor, drove the 1.5 miles home to her half a million pound flat in Mablethorpe Road without incident, but immediately confessed when confronted.

She pleaded guilty at Hammersmith Magistrates' Court on Tuesday to driving with excess alcohol in her breath on July 20 and was fined £625 and disqualified for two years and four months.

Her reading was 95 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Prosecutor Mr. Tom Gill told the court: "Police received a call from a concerned member of the public concerning a woman who had left the Rose public house in Harwood Terrace and drove off with a child in the car.

"Police visited the defendant's address and she answered the door while unsteady on her feet and rambled on about being at a friend's birthday party that afternoon, where she had Pimm's and wine.

"She said: 'I can't believe this. I've made a big mistake'."

Fearon's solicitor Miss Naomi Alcendor said: "She took her son to a play centre and went to the party and did not consume any alcohol.

"She collected her son, but then stopped off again at the party on the way home.

"It is a family-orientated venue with a garden and she did consume alcohol and decided to drive the short distance to her home.

"She is devastated to find herself in this position because she had her son with her that day."

Magistrate Mrs Nicola Leach told Fearon: "This is a very, very high reading and we are concerned you drove under such circumstances with your son in the car."

Fearon was also ordered to pay £85 costs and a £65 victim surcharge, which she agreed to pay immediately.