Drink driving pensioner was treble the limit at Wivenhoe cemetery

Judith Mosley, 66, pressed the accelerator instead of the brake in her recently purchased automatic Volkswagen Polo and careered into wall of the graveyard in Belle Vue Road, Wivenhoe.

Police were called to the scene after the crash at 11.15am on August 29 and were told by paramedics they had found Mosley still in the car and had to help her to the back of the ambulance.

She was not seriously hurt and did not need to go to hospital but was taken to Colchester Police Station for a breath test.

It showed she had 105mcgs of alcohol per 100mls of breath. The legal limit is 35.

The retiree’s car - valued at £13,800 - was written off and remained lodged up against a gravestone for 24 hours.

Mosley and her husband have agreed to pay to restore the wall which is expected to cost £3,000.

Matthew Swash, mitigating at Colchester Magistrates’ Court after Mosley admitted drink driving, said she had been boozing as a way of self-medicating for her depression but was now seeking help for both, including attending counselling and support groups.

He said: “She has driven an extremely short distance.

“She goes off the driveway in an automatic vehicle, hits the accelerator rather than the brake and goes through the wall.

“She has recently purchased that car and the value of it will never be recovered.

“Her husband is just about to retire and she has recently retired.

“It is to her credit she has contacted a builder who has estimated it will costs nearly £3,000 to fix the wall. The Mosleys will pay that.”

Mr Swash added Mosley, who lives in Belle Vue Road, thinks about what happened every day because of the close proximity of the smash to her home. He said: “The damage which is still there is a constant reminder of what she has done.

“Every time she opens her curtains she sees it.

“She wants everybody to know how sorry she is.”

Mr Swash said coverage of the case had been another layer of punishment for Mosley.

He said: “Hopefully it can be put across how apologetic she is about the situation.”

Magistrates banned Mosley from driving for two years.

She was also made subject of a community order with the sole requirement that she undertakes 120 hours of unpaid work.

On top of the repair work she has volunteered to pay for, Mosley faces a bill for £175 in court fees.

Wivenhoe Town Council runs the graveyard which

is known as the “new cemetery”.

The area is restricted for burials of solely people who lived in the town and now only people who have been residents for two decades.