Zoe Lihou was reported to police after a motorist followed her at about 9.20 one morning driving from Le Vauquiedor into Town.
He reported that her driving was erratic, with the car swerving across the road, and at one point narrowly missing an oncoming taxi.
The erratic driving continued as the car went along Mount Row, Queen’s Road and down Brock Road.
But soon after rounding the bend at the Arsenal Road junction, she hit a BMW coming in the other direction, colliding with its rear passenger door and causing considerable damage.
The other car stopped but Lihou did not, and at this point the witness called the police.
Officers went to Lihou’s home within the hour and found her asleep in a shed at the back of the property. There was a half-full open bottle of white wine next to her and a glass of wine.
She was arrested and taken to the police station on suspicion of drink-driving. An evidential test at the station, given at about noon, gave a reading of 108 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath, three times the legal limit.
Lihou, 51, of Mont Arrive, St Peter Port, admitted drinking and driving and failing to stop after an accident.
She had initially entered a not guilty plea to the drink-driving offence on the grounds that she had drunk some alcohol after arriving home, but her advocate, Sara Mallett, said that after a scientific report was prepared and did not support that argument, the plea was changed.
Lihou accepted the facts and said she was deeply sorry, recognising the seriousness of the offence and the fact that her standard of driving was extremely poor.
Advocate Mallett noted that there had been some time between Lihou being arrested and giving the evidential breath test.
She said the defendant had a clean record and had never previously appeared before the court.
She had an impeccable character, which was reflected in the many references submitted to the court. She served as a St Peter Port constable between 2020 and 2024.
‘For the most part she has been an exceptional member of our community,’ said the advocate.
However, recently she had experienced difficult personal circumstances. She recognised that she had an unhealthy relationship with alcohol, and in light of this had already voluntarily attended the Independence addiction charity on a number of occasions.
She wanted to assure the judge and the community that there would be no repeat of this sort of incident.
Judge Marc Davies said he had thought hard about whether or not the custody threshold was passed in this case.
The Hatwell guidelines – the legal precedent used by the courts – set out that someone who gave a reading of 110 microgrammes or above would be liable for an immediate custodial sentence.
While Lihou’s reading was lower and could be said to be on the cusp of this, he said her bad driving made him feel that a custodial sentence was unavoidable.
‘You were very far over the limit, you drove very badly and you caused a collision,’ he said.
‘I’m astonished that you did not cause more. You were so drunk behind the wheel that you didn’t realise or you didn’t care.’
He said that Lihou had also misled a probation officer who wrote the pre-sentence report and had not been honest about what she had drunk and when.
He said he had asked himself if it was possible for any prison sentence to be suspended, but in the circumstances he did not feel able to do this. He sentenced Lihou to six weeks in prison for the drink-driving offence, and banned her from driving for three years.
Four weeks and a 12-month ban, concurrent, were imposed for failing to stop.