Margaret Hume: TAFE careers adviser convicted over ‘dangerous’ high-range drink-driving incident
A teacher at a western Sydney TAFE, Margaret Elizabeth Hume was caught high-range drink-driving in broad daylight after she crashed her car twice, blaming the incident on her marriage breakdown, but in the end she was still convicted.
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A TAFE teacher was on a mission to get more booze when she drove to the bottle shop drunk and crashed her car into anything that got into her path as residents desperately tried to stop the rampage.
Margaret Elizabeth Hume, 65, of Gordon appeared at Hornsby Local Court on Wednesday after being found guilty of high-range PCA from the incident on May 3.
During court proceedings Hume’s lawyer blamed his client’s behaviour on her marriage breakdown.
“She’s normally an upstanding citizen, it was a breakdown in relation to mental faculties. Part of the problem was a marriage breakdown there,” her lawyer said.
“Her husband is actually before the court today and he’s been helping to get their relationship back on track.”
The lawyer told Magistrate Margaret McGlynn that Hume needed her driver’s licence for work as a teacher working in the careers pathway and skills unit at the TAFE Miller campus.
“She was on the way to the bottle shop. She’s prepared to admit her mistake.
“She has to catch three trains and one T-way bus to get home and often finishes late. She doesn’t always feel safe.
“This has weighed very heavily on her and she said that’s fair enough. She’s done the wrong thing and she’s prepared to admit it.”
However, according to documents police submitted, “At the time of her interaction with police regarding this matter she [Hume] did not appear to understand the danger she posed to herself and other road users on the day and found the licence suspension to be unacceptable.”
Police facts reveal officers received at least three triple zero calls after 4.30pm on May 3 from citizens who witnessed a silver Toyota Corolla being driven into a gutter and bursting a tyre, then continuing to a small shopping centre where the woman stopped, then got back into her car and drove until she hit stop signs in Lindfield.
One of the callers told police “the female driver seemed oblivious to the damage on the car”, court documents state.
When police arrived they saw Hume in the driver’s seat and saw witnesses gesturing her to stop with “considerable damage visible to the front off side of the car with the guard heavily damaged, making it difficult to open the driver’s door,” police facts state.
The front off side wheel was bent inwards and the tyre was flat, coming off the rim with the rear tyre on the same side completely deflated.
Police facts state Hume told them she’d driven from her home in Gordon to the shops to buy alcohol, and despite the strong smell of alcohol on her breath, she lied about drinking.There were also two unopened bottles of alcohol in her car and she was wearing a dress with no shoes.
Hume was submitted to a breath test which returned a positive reading and she later admitted to drinking four glasses of white wine when she arrived at Chatswood Police Station.
On Wednesday Magistrate Margaret McGlynn told Hume her actions were dangerous.
“It’s an enormous danger to the community, drink driving. It’s aggravated by the fact you ran into the gutter and ran into the street signs.”
She was convicted, disqualified for six months and was ordered to undertake an interlock period of 2 years.
Further, she was ordered to pay a penalty of $1500.