A drink driver suffered a fit of hysteria, screaming and shouting abuse at police when they called at her house, a court was told.
Janet Pogson, who is 66, ended up being handcuffed by police to restrain her when they called at her house in Brookhill Road in Ramsey on September 27.
For the prosecution, Barry Swain said Pogson had visited the Ramsey Cottage Hospital earlier in the day and police had been asked to perform a welfare check on her when she returned home.
When they arrived, they found the front door of the house standing wide open but the defendant was nowhere to be seen.
A few moments later, she pulled up on the driveway in her VW Passat.
‘The defendant got out and immediately went into hysterics, screaming and shouting,’ Mr Swain said, adding police decided to call in reinforcements to restrain her.
‘She was calmed down and had to be handcuffed for her own safety,’ Mr Swain said.
He told the court she carried on screaming at police, who thought she may be drunk. However she refused to take a breath test then slumped on the floor, pretended to fall asleep and started snoring.
She was arrested and bundled into the police van.
At the police station, she co-operated and gave a breath test which showed a reading of 43, a little above the drink drive limit of 35. Because of the low reading, she was offered the chance of a blood or urine test, but said: ‘Considering I’m not bothered about driving, just use the breath test.’
Defending her, Lydia Mulligan told the court her client’s story was a sad one involving considerable difficulties.
‘On the day in question she just found everything was too much for her,’ she said.
‘She took her medication and a measure of whisky then went to the hospital to ask for help.’
But on the way back home, she decided, inexplicably, to collect her car, which was at the garage being serviced.
‘She saw it there, and decided to drive it home. When she arrived, she saw the police already there and she was frightened and confused and her actions were born out of that,’ she said.
‘She apologises. She was co-operative and it was a very low reading at a time when she was in clear need of help.’
She reminded the court the defendant had a clean driving licence and no previous convictions.
Magistrates’ chairman Gill Eaton described the matter as ‘an unfortunate set of circumstances’.
Pogson received a one-year driving ban and was fined £750 and ordered to pay costs of £125.
She must also pass an extended driving test before being allowed behind the wheel.