Lynelle Joy Crossman drove to help her son only to get caught drink driving

The 54-year-old was driving her son back to Toowoomba when she was pulled over by police and found to be way over the limit.

The woman blew a breath/alcohol reading more than three times the legal limit.

A mother’s concern for her son’s welfare has led to a woman appearing in a Toowoomba court charged with high range drink driving.

Lynelle Joy Crossman told Toowoomba Magistrates Court she had driven to Brisbane on the evening of September 27 to pick up her teenage son who she said had already assaulted someone at Central Railway Station and had taken some medication from his grandmother’s home.

“I was fearful of what my son might do,” the self represented 54-year-old said.

When police pulled over her car as she drove on Moggill Road, Indooroopilly, about 8.20pm that day, the woman’s son had been verbally abusing her, the court heard.

Police prosecutor Cameron Francis told the court Crossman had initially told police she hadn’t been drinking alcohol and had become lost while trying to follow her GPS directions to get back to Toowoomba.

However, after returning a breath/alcohol reading of 0.16, she told police she had been drinking wine and bourbon earlier that day.

She said she had been going through a variety of family issues, Mr Francis said.

Crossman pleaded guilty to a charge of driving while under the influence of alcohol.

She told the court she was a disability support worker employed in health care in Brisbane and asked for a higher fine and lesser licence disqualification period so she could continue to work.

Magistrate Howard Osborne said he would accept her request and increased the fine from $1200 to $1500 and disqualified her from holding or obtaining a driver’s licence for the mandatory minimum period of six months.