A drink-driving estate agent crashed her Mercedes into a bus stop while over double the limit before trying to flee the police on foot, a court heard.
Ogden leaving Bromley Magistrates' Court
Kirsty Ogden, 30, consumed four drinks at a works leaving party and was told on Monday she was fortunate nobody had been injured or killed.
“You were very lucky there was no-one standing in the queue at that bus stop and God forbid, had anyone been injured or even killed then you could have gone to prison for many years,” magistrate Timothy Nathan told her.
Ogden, of Vallance House, Callis Close, Woolwich pleaded guilty to driving the white Mercedes with excess alcohol in her breath in Charlton Park Road on July 15.
She had 78 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.
The legal limit is 35.
She will lose her job at “one of the most profitable branches in the country,” after being banned from driving for twenty-two months; fined £300 and ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge and £85 costs.
Prosecutor Dwain Coward told Bromley Magistrates’ Court: “Police received a call from an informant that a car had crashed into a bus stop and the female driver had exited and was walking away.
“The witness said the female was on a mobile phone saying: ‘I need your help,’ to whoever she was talking to.
“The police officers searched the area on foot and saw this defendant walking a short distance away.
“When she saw the police officers she began to run away and was chased and arrested and admitted she had been driving the vehicle and crashed it.”
Ogden’s lawyer Michael Gallagher told the court: “She says she had been drinking at a leaving do in Blackheath for a member of staff in her office.
“She had three or four drinks and felt fine to drive even though she had not eaten all day and decided the drive the short distance and misjudged and clipped the kerb and collided with the bus stop.
“She says she was pacing back and forth while on the phone and was walking around in circles.
“The police officers say she was crying, upset, frightened, disorientated and was asking for help.
“She does not believe she was running away from the police, but returning to the scene and accepts she had four drinks and was the driver.
“After an abusive relationship she came to London five years ago with no family support and was working in the hospitality industry until it was destroyed by Covid.
“After that career she began working as an estate agent and has been in her current role for three years, working as an estate agent on commission,” added the lawyer.
“The commission is quite low, equivalent to the minimum wage, but she has been quite successful and was promoted to property consultant.
“She had taken out a lease agreement on the car, was working hard and felt she was doing well in her career.
“There was minor superficial damage to her Mercedes, but it would not start up and now she does not have enough money to repair it.
“Her employer has told her if she does not have a car she cannot work. She is unable to take people to viewings and travel to properties for what is one of the most profitable branches in the country.
“This is out of character. She has misjudged this and is going to pay for it.
“She wants to be an estate agent and I ask you to go outside the guidelines of an approximate seventeen-month disqualification due to her remorse and co-operation.”
Magistrate Mr Nathan disagreed. “We don’t share Mr Gallagher’s view. The police officers say, quite clearly, Ms Ogden left the scene and was running away and we regard that as an aggravating factor.
“You could have been charged separately for leaving the scene,” the magistrate told her. “We know you will lose your job and we are sorry about that.”
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