A CHRONIC alcoholic who was discovered four times the legal limit is more than £550 worse off today.

A CHRONIC alcoholic who was discovered four times the legal limit is more than £550 worse off today.

Mum-of-two Samantha Amos, 33, drove to the Tesco car park in Copdock to meet a friend she had made while receiving treatment at the Priory clinic.

South East Suffolk Magistrates' Court heard that after her friend went into the supermarket she drank half a bottle of vodka in half an hour before he returned to find her drunk.

Supermarket security staff noticed Amos and called police who breathalysed her. Amos was found to have 143mcg of alcohol in 100ml of blood. The legal limit is 35mcg.

However her solicitor, Hugh Rowland, said when she had driven to Ipswich from her parent's Norfolk home, her blood alcohol level would have been around 70mcg.

He added: “The reading is 143mcg which is a very high reading of course.

“We do not accept that the reading at the time of the driving would have been anything like that - this is post-driving consumption.

“What is clear is that Mrs Amos has a drink problem, it's quite a severe drink problem and it has led to her receiving inpatient care in the Priory.”

He added that the drink problem had developed after she suffered post-natal depression when her youngest child was born in 2005. He said she started to drink again not long after leaving the Priory.

On March 2, the defendant and her estranged husband had a major row and on March 4 Amos, of Hethersett in Norfolk, drove her blue Vauxhall Zafira to the Suffolk supermarket after drinking at least three large bottles of wine the night before.

Mr Rowland added: “We accept when she drove she was over the limit because of what she'd drunk the night before.”

He asked district judge David Cooper to sentence Amos, who pleaded guilty to drink driving, on the basis that she had been two times the legal limit rather than four.

Judge Cooper said: “It's impossible to know for sure what your reading would have been. It was certainly very high.”

He said he would have adjourned the case for a pre-sentence report but because of the mitigating factors he instead fined her £500, ordered her to pay £55 in costs and disqualified her from driving for two years.

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