Drunk Wigan driver ploughs into two cars while hunting around her car for her mobile phone

Elina Augule was over the legal drink-driving limit when the incident occurred in Ormskirk Road on November 24.

Other news: Wigan truant case adjourned after prosecutor fails to show upThe 29-year-old, of Grasmere Avenue in Ince, was returning home from a house party when she tried searching for her phone, lost control of her Renault Scenic and crashed into the two parked cars.

In a hearing at Wigan and Leigh Magistrates’ Court, the mum-of-one was banned from driving for a year-and-a-half after admitting one count of drink-driving.

Defending, Adam Whittaker told the bench that Augule had been to a friend’s house party earlier in the evening. She had driven there as she was not feeling well and therefore did not plan on drinking any alcohol.

After an hour or so, she began to feel better and began drinking alcohol, starting with an “alcopop” followed by two glasses of rum and cola.

She stopped drinking an hour before she left and felt okay to drive, Mr Whittaker said.

On the journey home to Ince, Augule realised she could not find her phone.

She was rooting around the car to find it when she careered into two cars and came to a stop.

“She is absolutely mortified by what she has done,” Mr Whittaker told the bench.

“She’s made a mistake, she accepts that mistake, and she has pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.”

Prosecutor Tess Kenyon said that Augule stayed at the scene following the incident and knocked on several doors to find out who the vehicles belonged to.

She also cooperated fully with the police and provided a full breath sample at the roadside and again at the police station, where the lowest reading was 63 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mgs.

She was banned from the road for 18 months and must pay a £32 victim surcharge and £85 in court costs.