By CAM LUCADOU-WELLS
A CRANBOURNE West “reformed alcoholic” who had been maimed in a serious crash while drink-driving – potentially faces jail for disqualified driving in a separate incident.
Kerry Leanne Adams, 46, was defying a five-year driving ban when she was stopped by police at a breath testing station in Narre Warren South last year, a court was told on Monday.
Police prosecutor Sen Const Fiona Davis told the court Adams initially gave a false name and address to police, and that Adams’s car was unregistered at the time.
The accused was also subject to a nine-month suspended jail term imposed for driving-under-the-influence and reckless conduct endangering serious injury convictions in 2013, Sen Const Davis said.
Adams told police at the time she drove because she had no other way of getting to work.
Adams’s lawyer told the court on Monday there were “exceptional circumstances” against activating the suspended sentence.
The accused was a reformed alcoholic who had no alcohol in her system during the most recent incident. She hadn’t “gone back to drinking” since a drink-drive crash in 2012, the lawyer said.
During that crash, Adams veered onto the wrong side of the road, clipping an on-coming vehicle and crashing into a ditch off the road.
At the time, Adams had been in a “depressed mood” due to her husband of 18 years leaving her for her best friend, the lawyer said.
She recorded a blood alcohol reading of 0.17 – more than three times the legal limit, the lawyer said.
As well as being convicted for the crash, Adams received extensive injuries including four fractures in her neck, a broken spine, pelvis, coccyx and sternum
Adams’s mental health deteriorated and was “no longer the reckless person” involved in the earlier crash, the lawyer said.
She had become addicted to prescribed painkillers, been seen by a clinical assessment team twice this year and been admitted to Casey Hospital due to an overdose.
She was also experiencing vision problems, serious clinical depression and possibly could have acquired a brain injury due to the crash.
Magistrate Gerard Bryant said he required more “compelling evidence” that Adams was a recovered alcoholic and had an acquired brain injury prior to sentencing.
Adams will appear for sentencing at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on 17 September.
