Ref. 14734-133A TEACHER who secretly drank the lion's share of a bottle and half of wine in a supermarket car park has been fined £1,200 and banned from driving for 21 months.

Christeen Fleming, 55, of Bakers Road, Wroughton, pleaded guilty to drink driving, but in a unusual case yesterday, Swindon magistrates had to determine what they thought the level of alcohol in her body was when she got in her car.

Mrs Fleming, a teacher at St Joseph's School, had pulled into the Ellendune Centre car park near her home on Saturday, July 19 last year.

There she drank a 25cl bottle of Jacobs Creek wine and the majority of a bottle of Cava wine.

An ambulance was called after Mrs Fleming was found slumped in her green Rover car, which was diagonally parked across two spaces in an empty car park, by a concerned member of the public.

PC Sid Vincent, on patrol in the area, said he found Mrs Fleming lying to one side of the car.

A roadside breath tested showed a positive reading and when she was later tested at Westlea police station the reading showed 148 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, a reading PC Vincent said was "one of the highest I have seen". The legal limit is 35.

But there was a dispute as to whether Mrs Fleming had driven with that amount of alcohol in her body or as Con Fernandes, defending, claimed the high reading was the result of drinking the wine in the car park.

The court heard that Mrs Fleming, who has sought help from her doctor, Alcoholic's Anonymous and counsellors for her drink problem, had drunk more than normal in the days preceding her arrest.

The day before, the court heard, she had drunk 10 glasses of wine between 1pm and going to bed and on previous days she had been to a staff party, celebrated her wedding anniversary and attended her daughter's graduation.

Frank Murphy, prosecuting, said it was obvious Mrs Fleming had a drink problem at the time and that her account was "wholly unreliable".

"You were under the influence of alcohol when you parked up," he said.

"It's obvious you had a drink problem at the time. You had been drinking both publicly and secretly for three nights prior to that Saturday morning you were hiding a considerable quantity consumed over these three nights."

Work pressures and the death of her mother-in-law on New Year's Eve were blamed as factors for her drinking.

Mrs Fleming, who has a clean driving licence, told the court she had no intention of knowingly driving over the limit.

She said: "I honestly believed I could get out of the car, walk home and go to bed."

Magistrate Giles Currie's "best estimate" was that Mrs Fleming's alcohol reading was between 71 and 85 microgramms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood when she was driving.

In addition to the £1,200 fine, she was ordered to pay £500 costs, but her disqualification will be reduced by five months if she successfully completes a drink drive rehabilitation course.

Afterwards, Peter Wells, headteacher at St Joseph's, said: "The case before the court was a private matter that happened outside the workplace. Mrs Fleming had informed me of the circumstances in confidence and I don't believe it is appropriate for me to make further comment."

giles Sheldrick