Shropshire hospital nurse is spared road ban
A hospital nurse who refused a breath test has been allowed to keep her driving licence after magistrates heard patients would suffer if she could not get to work.
Sarah Bacon warned she would have to quit her job if she could not drive and it was claimed this would cause hardship to cancer patients and colleagues because it would leave them a staff member short.
Bacon, 31, from Market Drayton, had been out with her sister at a party but they had argued when they returned home, magistrates in Shrewsbury heard. Bacon then decided to go and sleep in her car outside.
Mike Phillips, prosecuting, said she was found by police asleep on the back seat in the early hours of August 2 and although there were no keys in the car, its handbrake was off and it was touching the car in front.
John Macmillan, mitigating, said Bacon, who is a nurse at Royal Stoke University Hospital, where she works on a cancer ward, had been scared by the officers and had "stupidly" thought the best thing to do was refuse a breath test.
He said: "The two girls got into a stupid argument and she decided 'I am not staying here' so got her dog and went to the car and slept there. Police officers came past and she was sleeping across the seats in the car."
Mr Macmillan told the court that Bacon was a woman of previous good character.
Bacon gave evidence to ask the magistrates not to disqualify her under special hardship rules and said she had been "petrified at the time" and knew she had made a mistake.
Magistrates, who also heard a statement of support from Bacon's matron, accepted that her disqualification would cause hardship to cancer patients and fellow staff.
Bacon, of The Burgage, who admitted a charge of failing to provide a specimen, had her licence endorsed with 10 penalty points and was fined £220.
