A WOMAN who crashed her car and tried to blame a non-existent motorist for "ramming" her off the road was significantly over the alcohol limit, a court heard.
Emma Deganaro, of Redwither Lane in Abenbury, appeared at Wrexham Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning.
The 43-year-old admitted that on January 14, she drove an Audi A1 on Holt New Road at Llan y Pwll, after consuming so much alcohol that the proportion of it in her breath exceeded the prescribed limit.
Prosecutor Rhian Jackson told the court that at around 11am on the day of the offence, police were called to a collision on New Holt Road.
It was initially reported as a two-vehicle collision with a silver Peugeot having apparently made off from the location.
Officers attended and discovered that a black Audi A1 had sustained substantial damage.
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An "inconsolable" Deganaro confirmed she was the driver of the vehicle and said she'd been "followed closely" by a Peugeot 306 as she travelled from the JCB Roundabout and had been "forced" to mount a kerb.
She claimed she had been "rammed off the road" by the Peugeot.
But the police could smell intoxicants on her breath and a witness at the scene said he hadn't seen any other vehicle involved in the incident.
CCTV also showed that there had been no vehicle following her as she claimed.
Her evidential breath reading was 132 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - the limit being 35.
When she was interviewed by the custody nurse, Deganaro confirmed she had an issue with alcohol and had been drinking a lot of vodka and wine.
She claimed her husband had been away at work that week, she was lonely and that she'd been struggling.
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Probation officer Andrew Connah told the court: "She accepts responsibility for this offence and tells me she had been drinking heavily the night before, unfortunately on an empty stomach."
Mr Connah said despite what the defendant told the custody nurse after her arrest, she claimed on the day of her sentencing that she didn't have any alcohol issues, but that she drank at the weekend.
Lorraine McClure, defending, said: "She accepts she had been drinking.
"The biggest punishment is going to be losing her licence."
The defendant received a 12 month community order with 150 hours of unpaid work, £200 costs and £114 victim surcharge.
She also received a 32 month driving ban.
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