An alcoholic mum has been lucky not to lose her right to cheap car insurance for women after armed police swarmed her car.
41-year-old Celia Young, who has drink and drug problems, stopped her car to peer at a road accident in London in January 2006, but a gang of youths noticed what appeared to be a handgun tucked into the waistband of her trousers.
They alerted nearby police and within minutes a gun-toting armed response unit surrounded her car and dragged her out onto the road. Understandably shaken, Young revealed to police that the handgun was, in fact, a toy. She explained that she kept if for protection because a strange man had recently approached her and asked to get in her car.
Police breathalysed the mum-of-two but despite swigging Special Brew earlier in the day, she was found to be narrowly under the legal alcohol limit. Just a tiny bit more booze in her system would have seen her charged with drink driving, and a ban and expensive motor insurance would undoubtedly have followed.
Instead she was arrested for possessing an imitation firearm and admitted the charge at Wimbledon Magistrates' Court last week. Warned against carrying toy guns in the future, the mum-of-two was sentenced to an 18-month community order and ordered to pay costs of £35.
A spokesperson for Covergirl Car Insurance Services, specialists in car insurance for women, said, "Any alcohol in your system can affect your driving ability, even if you're not over the drink drive limit, so it's best to steer completely clear if you're planning to get behind the wheel."