Drink drive ex-cop avoids jail

A former police officer who crashed her sports car while more than four times the legal drink drive limit has avoided prison.

Tracy Watts, was arrested after crashing her MG car into a bollard on Southend sea front earlier this year. Watts resigned from the City of London Police two weeks after the incident, she admitted that she had drunk a bottle of vodka.

She had been warned by magistrates that a custodial sentence was 'very likely'. Watts had crashed into a bollard in Eastern Esplanade at around 7.15pm on March 26 this year. Emergency services were called to the scene, where Watts admitted that she had consumed a bottle of vodka before the crash.

No one was injured in the incident. She recorded a blood-alcohol level of 320mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood - four times over the UK drink-drive limit.

Today at Southend Magistrates Court Watts, 31, of Shoeburyness, Essex, was handed a 12 week jail term, suspended for 12 months, but has been told she must continue to work with the drugs and alcohol service to address her drinking problem.

Watts was also disqualified from driving for three years from the 18th June, but this could be reduced to 27 months, should she continue her course of rehabilitation. Watts was ordered to pay £85 costs.

Speaking after the hearing Carole Whittingham, of the Campaign Against Drink Driving said: