A hunt master who threatened to punch a policeman trying to arrest her for drinking and driving has been jailed for three months.Charlotte Wilson-Smith, 39, from Wymington in Northamptonshire and master of hounds with the Oakley Hunt, burst into tears as she was sentenced.
Northampton Crown Court heard she was seen weaving across the road and mounting grass verges as she drove back to her farm cottage on 23 April.
After driving seven miles home, almost causing an accident, she was said to have fallen out of her car and was arrested as she tried to climb a fence.
Wilson-Smith, who was three and a half times over the legal limit, admitted drink-driving and was found guilty of dangerous driving.
The court heard she had been drinking Bucks Fizz at a hunt breakfast after an early-morning sponsored bike ride to raise money for the hunt.
When she arrived at her farm cottage, she fell out of her car, an eyewitness said.
She was trying to climb over a barbed wire fence into a field when police arrested her.
Wilson-Smith told the court she had thought she had been driving sensibly, but may have speeded up thinking her car was being followed by a hunt saboteur.
‘Social difficulties’
Recorder Andrew Tidbury told her: “It was a matter of luck that there was not an accident and potentially a serious accident.
“It was also a matter of luck that in the course of you driving back from that sponsored bicycle ride that a child or a cyclist was not on that road and ran out in front of that car.”
Wilson-Smith was also banned from driving for three-and-a-half years and recommended for a drink-driving rehabilitation programme.
Tim Ashmole, defending, told the court social difficulties had led her to drink and she realised she had a problem.
Hunt Details
Source: BBC News
