A bar worker drove for six miles down a motorway with one of her car wheels missing following a drunken crash.
Jenni Smyth downed bottles of Smirnoff Ice and Jagerbombs during her shift in a nightclub before getting behind the wheel and smashing into a parked vehicle. But the 26-year-old was spared prison due to the "untold effect" the murders of both her dad and uncle had on her as a child.
Liverpool Crown Court heard yesterday, Tuesday, that a disabled resident of New Hey Road in Woodchurch, Wirral, was "woken by a loud crash" at 5.30am on February 27 this year. The woman looked outside to find a small grey car had smashed into her vehicle and "shunted it up the road".
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Joanne Moore, prosecuting, described how the defendant's vehicle "became stuck inside her car", but she reversed out and drove away from scene and onto the M53. Roughly an hour later at around 6.30am, an off-duty police officer, who was on her way to begin her shift, spotted Smyth turning right onto Woodstock Road in Liscard from Mill Lane.
The PC described how "sparks were coming from" the motor, which had suffered "extensive damage". She was "surprised the vehicle was capable of being driven at all", and reported the incident upon her arrival at work.
Her colleagues attended the scene at 7.30am and found the offending car parked in a bus lane with its front bumper and front off-side wheel missing. Drag marks leading from the motorway were also noted.
The police attended Smyth's home on the same street and were initially told by her sister that the motorist was not home. But her mum subsequently woke up and told them that her daughter was asleep in her bedroom.
They noted that she "smelled of alcohol and was slurring her words", and had a bump on her head - which she said had happened when she "banged it on her sister's door". Smyth was taken taken to Arrowe Park Hospital, where the officers overheard her confessing to staff that she had actually banged it on the steering wheel when she crashed her car.
When breathylsed shortly before 10.30am, the driver was found to have 60micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath - the legal limit being 35. Under interview, she confessed that said she had drank two Smirnoff Ice and two Jagerbombs while working at the Beach nightclub in Birkenhead that night.
Smyth had then dropped her friends home in the Woodchurch area, and claimed to have no recollection of the collision. She was previously banned from driving for a year and fined £280 in November 2019 after being convicted of drink driving.
John Weate, defending, told the court that his client's dad was shot and killed when she was aged seven and her uncle was later stabbed to death. He said that this had "had an untold effect on her life", but Smyth is now in a new job and "has done exceptionally well".
Mr Weate added: "There is to be no lame or limp excuse put forward on behalf of this defendant. While she acted in an irresponsible way on the night in question, she has in fact acted in a proper way as far as these court proceedings are concerned.
"She is hard-working, intelligent, well thought of and caring - she has many positive attributes to her character. She is motivated and committed in life."
Smyth admitted dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident and drink driving. She was handed a three-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months and banned from driving for three years.
Sentencing, Recorder Richard Leiper KC said: "The circumstances of these offences are highly unusual. There can be no doubt given the state of your vehicle that it was dangerous for you to have been driving it.
"The bad driving took place over a prolonged period. There appears to have been a deliberate disregard for the safety of others and a real risk of personal injury, which fortuitously did not occur.
"It is significantly aggravated by the fact that you were driving while over the alcohol limit, which clearly impeded your ability to understand what was happening."
Speaking about her dad and uncle's deaths: "The impact of these events upon you is difficult to understate. I would have had little sympathy for someone who has not taken the lesson of their previous conviction to change their life.
"However, I have been persuaded that this is a case where I should suspend the sentence given the extent of events in your background."
Smyth cried in the dock as she was sentenced, then thanked judge and hugged relatives as she left the courtroom. She was also handed a rehabilitation activity requirement of up to 25 days and was told she must pass an extended retest and pay a victim surcharge.
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