A woman has been banned from the roads after she failed to provide police with a breath test and driver details.
Tanya Stewart told officers she didn’t know who had been driving her car, and did not close her lips around the tube when asked to give a breath sample.
When arrested, she told police she “was trying” but her solicitor told the court she “should have tried harder”.
Stewart, 31, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court, where she admitted failing to provide driver details and a sample of breath to police.
Fiscal depute Sophie Marshall told the court that it was around 12.25am on September 14 of last year that police went to Stewart’s Broom Court home in Conon Bridge about a matter that was not before the court.
Woman ‘didn’t know’ who was driving
She said that officers required Stewart to provide the details of who had been driving her car, but she responded: “I don’t know.”
She was then required to provide a specimen of breath and given “several opportunities” to do so, but “on each occasion did not carry this out properly and failed to close her lips around the tube”.
The fiscal depute told Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald: “It became apparent that the accused was failing to provide a sample.”
Stewart was then cautioned and charged and replied that she “was trying”.
‘She should have tried harder’
Solicitor John MacColl, for Stewart, conceded that his client “should have tried harder”.
He said that a driving disqualification would prevent Stewart from returning to her work as a cleaner and would impact her ability to take her children to and from sporting activities.
But Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald told Stewart: “You have pleaded guilty to two charges involving not cooperating with police – these matters are criminal offences for a reason.”
She banned her from the roads for five months and imposed a £580 financial penalty.