Woman steals 2mph mobility scooter for drunken 10-mile trip home

A woman stole a 2mph mobility scooter from outside an Asda supermarket and attempted to drive it 10 miles home while she was twice the drink-drive limit.

Amanda Leaff, 46, took the scooter, supplied by the supermarket to help disabled people do their shopping, from an car park at Chedderton, near Oldham, and set off on a trip home. Police later worked out that the journey would have taken her four hours to complete.

In the event she had managed to crawl only two-and-a-half miles by the time an off-duty police officer noticed she was driving "erratically" and pulled her over. "It was a surprise she got as far as she did," her solicitor, Stephen Krebbs, told magistrates in Oldham. "It was a risk to herself and other road users."



Mr Krebbs said Leaff, of Stretford, Manchester, took the scooter while enjoying a night out on November 12. She and a friend were already drunk when the other woman snapped the heel of her shoe.

Leaff decided to take the scooter and together the two women drove to the friend's house. Two hours later the defendant set out alone, intending to return home. The court heard that after being stopped on Oldham Road, Hollinwood, she became abusive.

She recorded a reading of 77mg of alcohol in her breath and later admitted charges of taking the scooter without consent and driving it while unfit through drink. The magistrates banned her from driving for 20 months and ordered her to pay £240 costs.