A drug-driving mother was so high on cocaine on the school run that astonished parents had to intervene by snatching her car keys and walking her children to class, a court heard.
Hayley Berry, 36, raised worry from fellow parents after she stopped her Ford C-Max in the middle of Grosvenor Road in Broadstairs, Kent, while attempting to drop her children off at school last year.
The woman was warned by a magistrate it was ‘one of the worst examples of drug-driving’ he had ever seen as he chastised her for getting behind the wheel with her small children in the back.
A stranger – anxious she was not in a suitable position to drive – grabbed the keys off her while others took her children the rest of the way to their school, it was heard.
The altercation was escalated to the police and Berry was detained at the site and eventually prosecuted.
Berry, from Ramsgate, Kent, admitted drug-driving and driving while unfit through drugs when she appeared before magistrates in Margate on March 7.
The court was told that when her blood was tested she gave a value of 83 micrograms of the cocaine byproduct Benzoylecgonine per litre of blood – while the legal limit is 50.
Magistrates heard she also had GHB – a narcotic with sedative and anesthetic effects – in her system on the day she was arrested but had not gone above the limit for that substance.
Lucie Fish, prosecuting, said the court Berry had stopped in the middle of the road with her children in the rear on November 11 last year.
Ms Fish said: ‘A man snatched the keys because she seemed like she wasn’t in a fit state [to drive].
‘He put his hand up and stopped her and did take the keys but then she parked up and several women carried the children to school.’
Nigel Numas, defending, read out a reference from an individual aiding Berry in overcoming drug addiction who stated the mother had made some personal improvement in the 24 months she had known her.
The reference indicated she was now making better choices in her life, taking full responsibility for her misdeeds, had real regret and was determined to repair her life.
Mr Numas added: ‘The process [of her attempting to defeat cocaine] has been going on a number of years, but a man she was seeing gave her what she believed was a legal high and she drank it and didn’t understand it was GHB.
‘She’s had two relapses [in the 24 months] so she’s making fantastic advances, but she was ignorant about what she drank.’
Magistrates imprisoned Berry for eight weeks but the penalty was deferred for 12 months. She was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work.
The chairman of the bench said: ‘I must say this is one of the worst examples of drug-driving I’ve come across.
‘You had your youngest children in the back of the car and you were out of it.
‘I don’t want to think what could have happened.’
Berry was also disqualified from driving for 30 months and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £154 and £85 court costs.
She will pay what she owes the court at a rate of £20 a month as she is on Universal Credit.