A drink driver who drove her BMW though the debris of a serious road accident, ignoring barriers and traffic cones and causing a police officer to jump out of the way as she accelerated towards him, has been jailed for ten months.

Mother of three, Leanne Thomas, ignored traffic cones, signs and barriers that were put in place to close the road between the Horse and Jockey and the Grove, following a serious accident on Sunday, January 29.

Swansea Crown Court heard how Thomas had driven on chevrons in order to access the closed north bound carriageway.

When a police vehicle at the scene turned on its blue lights to alert her that she needed to stop, she accelerated towards it. She then accelerated towards an officer in a high vis vest who put his arms out to stop her.

In fact, Thomas only halted the vehicle when she had to at a set of traffic lights. A council worker at the scene threw a traffic cone in front of her car to stop her from setting off again.

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Thomas then swapped places with her male passenger and told officers that she hadn’t been driving. Officer noticed that her speech was slurred, her eyes glazed and could smell intoxicants on her.

She gave a roadside breath reading of 48 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit is 35, however she failed to provide a sample at Haverfordwest police station.

Thomas, 41, of Meyler Crescent, Milford Haven, admitted dangerous driving, driving without a licence, driving without insurance, failing to stop when requested to do so by officers and failing to provide a breath specimen.

Judge Mr Recorder P Hopkins KC, said that the offence was aggravated by Thomas accelerating towards the officer, as well as the fact that she had a passenger, was under the influence of alcohol and had tried to evade responsibility by switching seats with her passenger.

“The officer had to take quick evasive action,” he said. “The potential consequences are unthinkable.”

In Thomas’ mitigation it was said that her actions had not negatively influenced the police investigation into the previous RTC and that the injured party had been airlifted to hospital before the time of her offending.

Her defence solicitor said that Thomas had experienced significant trauma, both in her early life and more recently on the death of her long term partner, and struggled with her mental health.

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The court heard that Thomas’ life had been stable since 2017 when she met her long term partner. However he had died in December of 2021 and Thomas had sought comfort in alcohol to deal with this trauma. The day of the offence was the anniversary of when the couple had first met.

She added that Thomas expressed genuine contrition and remorse for the offence and had sought help to address both her alcohol issues and the trauma she had experienced.

The court heard that Thomas had 14 previous convictions for 29 offences. These included driving offences spanning from 2001 to 2015.

Judge Hopkins said that he had taken Thomas’ circumstances into account but that the offences were so serious ‘that neither a fine or community order can be justified’.

“I would be failing in my public duty if I did not properly mark the gravity of your offending,” he said. “This is a case that calls for an immediate custodial sentence.”

He handed down a 10 month sentence for dangerous driving with two months for failing to provide a sample to run concurrently. No separate sentences were given for the other offences.

He also disqualified Thomas from driving for two years and five months.

Thomas will have to serve half of her sentence in custody and will be subject to a 12 month licence and supervision on release.

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