A 24-year-old Mandurah mother has avoided jail and been handed a hefty fine for sparking a dangerous police pursuit and assaulting a worker at a Cooloongup tavern.
Ashlee Louise Hemmings pleaded guilty to seven separate charges in the Mandurah Magistrates Court on Tuesday, January 16.
Police prosecutor Tamara Read told the court Hemmings’ spate of offences began on August 17, 2018.
Police were called to a disturbance just after midnight at McDonalds on Pinjarra Road where they located Hemmings driving in the car park.
She was breathalysed and returned a reading of 0.128g of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. It was also established she had never held a licence.
She was charged with one count of no authority to drive (never held), one count of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and one count of exceeding 0.08g of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood and given a driving disqualification notice until October 17.
Following this, Senior Constable Read told the court another incident occurred on September 7 about 1.10am in the Hungry Jacks car park on Pinjarra Road.
The mother-of-three was sat in the front seat of her parked car when a marked police vehicle pulled up next to her and motioned for her to stay in the vehicle.
Hemmings reversed out of the car park and took off at high speed, sparking a dangerous car chase through central Mandurah.
Two marked police cars with lights and sirens on attempted to stop Hemmings’ vehicle but she avoided them by driving through red lights, mounting a median strip and driving down Pinjarra Road the wrong way for more than 100 metres.
She was charged with one count of no authority to drive – suspended due to a disqualification notice and one count of driving a motor vehicle in a manner that was inherently dangerous to escape pursuit.
On November 5, 2018, about 5.45pm, Hemmings, who is pregnant with her fourth child, was intoxicated and becoming abusive towards patrons in Nags Head Tavern, Cooloongup.
She was asked to leave but did not comply. A member of staff attempted to restrain Hemmings to escort her when she used her right hand to punch the woman to the left cheek bone.
She was charged with common assault.
Hemmings’ lawyer Trent Petherick said his client is an “unsupported mother” with a “severe alcohol problem”.
“Things got out of control,” Mr Petherick said.
“She accepts that there’s no excuse.
“Since then, she’s done whatever she can to address the [alcohol] problem.”
Mr Petherick said his client was seeing her local doctor and had completed the Pre-sentence Order Program (POP) with promising results.
He asked Magistrate Anne Longden to consider a suspended jail term and rehabilitation requirements.
“She’s motivated – she wants to be a responsible parent,” he said.
Senior Constable Read said she held “reservations” and considered Hemmings’ risk of re-offending to be high.
Ms Longden was empathetic to Hemmings’ unique situation.
“This is a spate of offending that occurred when you were out of control,” she said.
“You’ve been driven to try and escape reality.
“There’s no doubt people would say you should go to jail having just heard the facts.
“But you’ve genuinely sought assistance… you’ve tried to get this issue under control.”
Hemmings was sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for dangerous driving to escape pursuit and two months imprisonment for common assault, both suspended for 18 months.
She will be required to complete a program, including counselling to address an alcohol addiction.
She was disqualified from driving for two years for dangerous driving to escape pursuit.
She was also fined a combined $2,500 and ordered to pay costs of $205.30 for three charges of no authority to drive, driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and exceeding 0.08g of alcohol per 100ml of blood and disqualified from driving for a further two years and five months.
