Indian-origin woman escapes ban for drink driving in UK

An Indian-origin woman managed to escape an instant driving ban for being caught drink driving after convincing a UK court that she needs to be able to continue driving in order to drop her children to school.

Nethra Kore admitted to drink-driving at Manchester Magistrates' Court this week and her lawyer pleaded against a ban, usually imposed in such cases.

According to court reports covered by the local media, the court heard that the 39-year-old's husband Shishir, 41, is a senior nurse with the UK's National Health Service (NHS) tasked with collecting donated organs from across the UK at short notice, which meant he would be unable to do the school run.

Leaving her as the person in charge of driving their two children to and from school.

Her licence was stamped with 10 penalty points and she was also fined 200 pounds and ordered to pay 115 pounds in costs.

While the court spared her a driving ban, her driving licence could still be revoked by the UK's Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) as she only passed her driving test 18 months before the offence and she could be made to re-sit her test.

Under UK law, a drivers' licence can be cancelled if the holder receives six or more points within two years of passing their test.

The incident occurred on last June after traffic officers spotted her driving in the dark in the Hale Barns area of Greater Manchester without her car headlights on.

The court heard that Kore blew 55 microgames of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, while the legal limit is 35 mg.

In an unusual legal move defence lawyer John Dye urged that his client be handed a short ban instead of a discretionary 10 points on her licence so she could resume driving when it expired instead of having to re-sit her driving test.

According to Manchester Evening News', the sentencing chair of the bench, Dario Cottingham, said: We obviously have listened to what's been said but we have guidelines to follow.

As for the points we have listened to what Mr Dye has said and again on this point follow the guidelines and impose 10 points. That doesn't necessarily mean the DVLA will revoke they may, they may not. To redo a license can be done very quickly in Manchester and I don't foresee that to be a problem.