A SCHOOLS sports coach who reported her car stolen after drunkenly crashing it into a roundabout near Skipton has been given a community sentence.

Abby Kirkbright, 28, was judged to have been more than three times over the limit when she drove her Toyota Yaris into signs on the A59 roundabout at Broughton in the early hours of August 10, heard Skipton Magistrates Court yesterday (Friday).

A staff member at Flutez and Fizz in Skipton was on her way home, saw the crashed car and recognised the driver as a woman she had seen earlier ‘extremely drunk’ in the bar, said prosecutor, Martin Butterworth.

She told the woman, who she saw had a cut to her head, that they needed to call the police, after which Kirkbright set off walking back towards Skipton.

When the police arrived, they found the car’s dashcam had recorded the collision on the roundabout.

Later that day, at 10.30am, Kirkbright, the registered keeper of the vehicle reported the car stolen, said Mr Butterworth. Interviewed at the police station, she said there was only one key to the car, she fitted the description of the woman in the vehicle at the time of the crash, and she also had a small cut on her forehead.

A breath test some nine or ten hours after she drove, put her at 29 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, and a back calculation put her at 110 microgrammes, the legal limit is 35.

Kirkbright, who admitted drink driving, obstructing a police officer and failing to stop after an accident, was of previous good character and was very unlikely to ever appear in court again, the court was told.

She had had intended to stay overnight in Skipton with a friend after their night out, but had changed her mind after her colleague had struck up a friendship with someone, and she had felt awkward.

After crashing her car, she had gone back to Skipton, where she had spent the night as originally planned before calling the police later in the day.

In mitigation, Daniel Frazer said Kirkbright, a single mother, was a carer for her grandfather and had been going through a difficult time and was likely to lose her job.“I don’t believe I will be seeing her again, and I rarely say that,” he said.

Kirkbright, of Hollingreave Road, Burnley, was banned from driving for 24 months and was given an 18 month community order. She will have to complete 100 hours unpaid work and carry out up to 10 rehabilitation activity requirement days, pay costs of £85 and a surcharge of £90. If she completes a drink-drivers rehabilitation course, her ban will be reduced by 24 weeks. Classed as a ‘high risk offender’ she will have to prove to a DVLA doctor she is medically fit to drive before getting her licence back.