News

Carl Millar recently read an article in the Folkestone Herald.

The article referred to a mother of 4 who had her 7 week old baby daughter in an unsecured cot on the back seat, and her 3 year old son standing up whilst she was spotted attempting to do a 3-point turn in Dymchurch.

Vaida Vosyliene appeared before Folkestone Magistrates Court on Friday 26^th October 2012 where she pleaded guilty to 7 charges including driving with excess alcohol and being drunk in charge of a child under the age of 7.  Furthermore, her Lithuanian registered Peugeot 307 was uninsured and Ms Vosyliene had not even passed her driving test.  She faced two further charges of failing to properly secure a child with the correct seatbelt.

In sentencing, the Magistrates ordered that she carries out 150 hours unpaid work, and she was banned from driving for a period of 2 years.  Her reading in breath was 109ųg, the legal limit being 35ųg.  The Magistrates Court Guidelines suggest a period of disqualification of between 23-28 months where the reading is between 90-119ųg in breath.

The most serious offence out of the 7 that Ms Vosyliene was charged with is in relation to the drink driving matter.  However, the offence was aggravated by the fact that she was charged with 6 other offences.  Therefore, in the circumstances, the disqualification period was lenient.  Mitigation was presented by her solicitor who explained that Ms Vosyliene was self-medicating as she was suffering from post natal depression and she did not realise the severity of the offences that she had committed as she had only lived in the UK for a period of 2 years and did not have full appreciation of how serious the offence of drink driving is viewed.  In the circumstances, the sentencing Magistrates obviously exercised leniency.