Corby woman gets suspended jail term after driving nearly four times over the legal limit

Jade Smart-Ferreira was arrested by police and charged with drink driving after they discovered she had 131 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.

The 41-year-old, of Tavistock Square, Corby, was driving a blue 57-plate Fiat Bravo in Oakley Road, just around the corner from her home, on February 4 this year when she was stopped by police officers.

She appeared before Northampton Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, May 1 and, after initially denying the offence, pleaded guilty to one count of driving while over the prescribed alcohol limit.

Magistrates gave her a jail term of ten weeks but suspended it for 12 months because of the adverse impact a period of immediate custody would have had on her children. If she commits any more offences during the next year then the sentence could be activated and she could be sent to prison.

She was ordered to pay £154 in court costs to be deducted from her benefits.

Smart-Ferreira will also have to partake in a six-month alcohol treatment order and will be made the subject of an electorincally-monitored curfew which will stop her from leaving her home between the hours of 8pm and 6am.

Magistrates also told her she must have six months of mental health treatment and complete 20 rehabilitation requirement days. She was also disqualified from driving for thirty months.