Woman tells Court she drank Vodka to 'calm down' after car crash, gets cleared of Drink Driving

A mother-of-4, who tested 4 times the alcohol limit after crashing a Mercedes, was cleared by a Court of any wrongdoing after alleging she had neat vodka to 'calm herself down'.

Kelsey Ridings, who is a Manchester-based accountant, crashed her Mercedes into a black Peugeot 308 on May 6. The vehicle was carrying her 4 children at the time of the crash, according to a news agency report. 

Reports said Ridings offered the driver of the Peugeot, Carl Kidd, £1,000 while walking unsteadily on her feet. She managed to leave the scene before cops arrived.

When officers tracked her to her home at Mottram near Hyde, Greater Manchester, just an hour late, her initial breath test showed she had  124mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, way above the legal limit of 35 mg.

A 2nd test revealed she had 82mg of alcohol.

Interestingly, Ridings was cleared of drink driving by the Tameside magistrates court after she claimed she had consumed two pints at the home of her best friend, Paige Azad.

In the court, Miss Azad claimed she had poured the drinks for Ridings & it had 'a lot of vodka & a bit of coke'. She added that Ridings was given a lift home after the drinking session.

While delivering the verdict, JPs said Ridings' account was 'often confused & misleading' but Miss Azad's evidence was 'totally incredible'.

As no one was injured in the crash, Ridings was cleared of any wrongdoing & let go.

The chairman of the bench said that “Mr Kidd was clear & credible. Miss Ridings was often confused, emotional at times & misleading. The other lady, Paige was totally incredible. However, the prosecution has not proved beyond reasonable doubt this case. There is insufficient evidence to prove you were over the limit at the time of the incident or at the time of consumption. We, therefore, find you not guilty".

While Ridings & Miss Azad celebrated, prosecutors questions the verdict. After Mr Kidd shared the details of the incident with the court, prosecutor Nick Smart said the account was 'breathtakingly honest account about the incident'.

But Ridings was cleared soon after defence lawyer Dave Holland said: "The two of them had a conversation lasting 5-10 minutes & whilst Mr Kidd had some suspicions she was drunk, he could not be sure & he could not smell alcohol."

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed) 

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