[A] TAXI passenger who grabbed the vehicle’s steering wheel during a West Cumbria journey has been sentenced by a judge.
Lucy Dobbin, 29, was said to have been “steaming drunk” while travelling with another intoxicated woman on January 5. “Agitated and distressed”, Dobbin mistakenly believed the car was speeding, and grabbed the wheel on the A595. The driver was able to avoid colliding with an oncoming vehicle but his vehicle crashed into a wall as he tried to regain control.
Dobbin was sentenced at Carlisle Crown Court after admitting causing a danger to road users by interfering with a vehicle. She also admitted assaulting a 15-year-old girl outside a Whitehaven pub in March when she was drunk again.
After hearing mitigation and details of Dobbin’s recent “real and proven progress” with a professional organisation, Judge Barbara Forrester suspended a five-month jail term for two years. Dobbin, of Westmorland Road, Hensingham, must also complete rehabilitation and a three-month night-time curfew.
Judge Forrester said of the taxi crime: “You are very fortunate nobody was seriously injured.”
