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Mum drove drunk with baby in car
Brian Lashley

September 16, 2009

A DRUNK mum drove with her 10-week-old baby in her car - and carried on going when police tried to stop her.

Claire Cropper, 28, downed four cans of lager before deciding to confront her ex-boyfriend.

Double limit

Despite being double the drink-drive limit she put her baby in her Nissan Micra and drove three miles to his house, where they rowed about his decision to end their relationship. When she left he phoned police and, the court heard, officers tried to stop her using blue flashing lights and sirens.

But Cropper carried on driving - and later claimed she thought the patrol car was trying to stop somebody else.

Officers finally caught Cropper outside her home in Stalybridge. They described Cropper as `clearly drunk' and when they arrested her she bit one of the officers who was trying to put her in a police van.

Cropper pleaded guilty at Tameside Magistrates’ Court to being drunk in charge of a child, drink driving, assaulting a police officer, and driving without insurance or a licence.

She was given a community order, banned from driving for 16 months and had her licence endorsed.

Prosecutor Penny Maudsley said Cropper’s former boyfriend called police after she had arrived in a drunken state and they rowed at his house. She said: “It was a short altercation. She then got back in the car and was followed by the police.

“She heard the sirens and thought they were for someone else and just went home.

“She accepted the positive reading of the breath test and said she was very upset.

“The officer who spoke to her could smell alcohol, she was clearly drunk and became aggressive and aggravated. The young baby was in a car seat on the passenger side.

“She could not remember leaving the baby in the car on its own and also offered her apologies to the officer.

'Worked up'

“She said she had been drinking and had three or four cans of Carlsberg lager ‘and was all worked up because he left me’.”

Cropper was given a roadside breath test and found to have 74 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath - just over twice the legal limit of 35 micrograms.

When arrested outside her home in Hague Place, she became violent, refused to get in the police van, bit an officer and threw herself on the ground ‘at every opportunity’.

The police officer who was assaulted suffered an injured thumb. Cropper did not wish to comment after the case.

I do not give a stuff "because he left me"

So..?????

And in any case.. whatever the tiff .. he knew she was drunk so why the feck did he not call a taxi there.

Mein Gott . I'd have banned the ruddy pair of them for being right fools.