Woman caught four times over limit claims mystery men spiked her prosecco
A businesswoman caught drunk driving after knocking back prosecco claimed ‘mystery men’ spiked her bubbly whilst buying her drinks.
Xenna Valentina, 27, insisted she had only had two and a half glasses of booze but claimed drugs must have been slipped into them as they were bought for her at a bar.
The recruitment consultant who lives in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, was stopped last month in her BMW after she got lost whilst driving 30 miles from home.
She tested one and a half times the limit after failing a breathalyser test and was seen by police to make herself vomit whilst being held in custody.
At Bolton Magistrates Court Valentina said she was initially going to deny drink driving on legal advice but she pleaded guilty to the charge.
At one stage during the proceedings she even attempted to claim the medication she was using to treat her new teeth had caused her to be over the alcohol limit.
Mr Gurdit Singh, prosecuting, said: ‘In the early hours of the morning on the 6th of March 2023, police officers in the Moore Lane area of Prestwich, Manchester noticed a grey sports BMW driving on the Bury new road towards Cheetham Hill.
‘The vehicle indicated to turn left on a number of occasions but did not make a turn.
‘The defendant, who was on her own in the car, eventually turned left. The officers assumed that she was lost and so pulled her over. When she was questioned by the attending officers she confirmed that she was lost.
‘The officers asked if she had been drinking and she admitted that she had a couple of drinks.
She was given a roadside test which showed positive. She was taken to a nearby custody suite where she measured a reading of 50 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, The legal limit is 35mg.
‘At 6.20am custody officers noted that the defendant made herself vomit a number of times by sticking two fingers down her throat.
‘She kept claiming that she had been spiked by men that were buying her drinks all night. She said she would provide a blood specimen but this was never produced.’
Valentina has no previous convictions and had a clean licence prior to this offence.
After changing her plea, Valentina, who represented herself after falling out with her previous solicitor, said ‘I am sorry, it will never happen again.’
She added ‘I felt well before I got in the car bit started to have a bad turn when I tried to turn left. I only had two and a half glasses of prosecco but realise I shouldn’t have got in the car in the first place.’
‘This other solicitor was trying to make me out as something I was not, trying to get me to plead not guilty all the time.
‘I did have my teeth done recently and I’ve been using this alcoholic medication and I thought it could have been that.
‘I am a single mother to a three-year-old little boy. The father never sees him. I am halfway through setting up an aesthetics business, but that will have to wait now.’
Valentina was fined £253 and banned from driving for 12 months.
She was offered a place on the drink driving awareness course which if completed, will see her return to the road by January 2024.
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