Drink-drive border control worker, 49, who crashed sports car while more than twice the legal limit walks free after blaming work stress
The civil servant was driving to get a takeaway after a wine binge
A CIVIL servant has walked free from court after crashing her sports car while drunk due to "work stress".
49-year-old Raquel Micklewright, who works for border control at Manchester airport, ploughed into one parked car then scraped another as she ventured out to get a takeaway.
Witnesses saw her driving off in her Mazda MX5 convertible before getting out to walk the rest of the journey home.
Police called to the scene last month near Micklewright's home in Ollerton, near Knutsford, Cheshire asked her to take a breath test which showed she was more than twice the alcohol limit.
She initially told officers she wasn't the driver of the car then later said she was only walking home to get her car insurance documents.
At Stockport magistrates court, Micklewright who works at the immigration desk at Manchester Airport, admitted drink driving but claimed she was one of just two people employed as a "forensic document specialist."
The incident happened on September 7 after Micklewright had arrived home from her shift.
Micklewright's car collided with two parked vehicles before she drove away, the prosecution told the court.
She then got out of the car and walked off when the police arrived and asked her to stop.
After trying to run from the police, the officer shouted for Micklewright to stop and she was then given a breathalyser test, the court heard.
The breath test showed she had 80 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
Her lawyer added that Micklewright had been awake since 3am that day as she is one of only two Forensic Document Specialists at Manchester airport.
She had allegedly made her line manager aware of stress due to a high workload.
The court heard Micklewright had a couple of glasses of wine and was driving to get some food but it was stressed that she doesn't drink every day and only excessively when she is not working.
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She is allegedly going through divorce proceedings with her husband in India and is currently off work.
Micklewright's defence lawyer said: "She had bottled things up for some time and unfortunately it had come to this. She is very ashamed and regretful for what she has done."
Micklewright was disqualified from driving for 20 months, fined £450 and made to pay court costs of £168.
The airport is currently embroiled in ongoing controversy over the lengthy queues thousands of passengers have to endure to get through passport control and security.
According to Manchester Airport passengers faced queues due to "insufficient resources" from the Home Office, which runs immigration.
The Home Office has blamed the queues on planes arriving at the same time, late night arrivals, and capacity issues at airport terminals.
Service standards are primarily to clear UK and EU passengers within 25 minutes, and non-EU passengers within 45 minutes.
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