Jingjing Jin, 40, of Naremburn: North Shore driver downed two bottles of red before crashing car

A North Shore woman knocked back two bottles of shiraz at a Monday night dinner before getting into her Commodore and crashing into a pole. See what happened in court

Jingjing Jin, 40, of Naremburn, outside Manly Local Court on Thursday, where she was convicted of high range drink driving after drinking two bottles of red wine. Picture: Manly Daily

A woman knocked back two bottles of red wine before climbing behind the wheel of her car, then drove for 10 minutes before crashing while trying to do a reverse park.

Jingjing Jin, 40, then became aggressive after bystanders grabbed her car keys in busy Willoughby Rd at Crows Nest, before she had the chance to drive away.

The hospitality worker had been to dinner at a friend’s house at Longueville on Monday March 4, before making the decision drive her Holden Commodore to her home at Naremburn.

Manly Local Court heard she initially meant to sleep over at the friend’s house, but headed for home after hearing that her ill father, who was having cancer treatment in China, had been admitted to a hospital intensive care ward.

Jingjing Jin, 40, of Naremburn, outside Manly Local Court on Thursday. Picture: Manly Daily

She told police after blowing 0.212 — four times’ the legal limit — that she had consumed two bottles of shiraz. Jin wasn’t able to advise officers over what period she had finished off the reds.

Jin pleaded guilty to one of high range drink driving.

At 11.35pm police were called after reports a car had struck a steel pole in Willoughby Rd and that the driver refused to get out of the car and was “becoming aggressive”.

According to a police facts sheet tendered to court, a witness handed officers a set of car keys they had taken from Jin to “prevent her driving”.

Police found Jin sitting in the driver’s seat.

Jingjing Jin was disqualified from driving for nine months by Manly Local Court. (AAP IMAGE / MONIQUE HARMER)

Jin’s solicitor told Magistrate Margaret McGlynn that Jin had been driving for about 10 minutes before her car struck the pole.

The solicitor said her client’s decision to drive was a “momentary lapse in Judgement” after hearing news her father’s medical condition had worsened and she wanted to be in her own home to receive further news from China.

In a letter of apology to the court Jin wrote that she had been under stress since hearing about her father’s cancer diagnosis.

“I understand the gravity of my actions and the potential danger it posed to myself and those around me,” she wrote.

Magistrate McGlynn told Jin that given the extremely high blood alcohol reading, the crash into the pole and that she had driven on busy roads for 10 minutes, the court was close to sending her to jail.

But Ms McGlynn also acknowledged Jin’s “very good” driving record before convicting her and placing her on a Community Correction Order to 18 months.

Jin was also disqualified from driving for nine months.