Judge praises 'drink-drive' sisters

Sisters Emma and Helen, 21, rang police when Tracey Cox, of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, got into her car after drinking a bottle of wine.

Cox, 43, had been warned that she faced prison after earlier pleading guilty to one offence of drink-driving and another of failing to provide a specimen, but she was sentenced to a three-month suspended jail sentence at Barnsley Magistrates' Court.

The mother-of-four was also banned from driving for three years, placed under a 12-month supervision requirement and was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and to attend a drink-impaired drivers' programme.

Sentencing Cox, District Judge Michael Rosenberg said: "You eventually pleaded guilty to the first offence after maintaining your denial right up to the court doors when, in my view, you had no credible defence whatsoever.

"You were even prepared until the last moment to allow your own daughters, your own flesh and blood, to come to give evidence against you.

"I applaud your daughters' public spiritedness in contacting and reporting it to the police. They must have been on the horns of a dilemma and their actions, in my view, are to be admired."

Officers who attended the incident on April 29 found Cox to be two-and-a-half times over the legal drink-drive limit.

Judge Rosenberg said: "Let me tell you now that I'm not going to sentence you to an immediate custodial sentence but you have come to the very periphery of being sent away."

The district judge told Cox her prison sentence would be suspended for 12 months and ordered her to pay £150 prosecution costs.