John Scruby, a trustee of the Campaign Against Drink Driving charity, told MailOnline: ‘I’m absolutely gobsmacked, I just cannot believe it, I really can’t. It’s unbelievable, it really is.”
‘It’s a smack in the teeth for anybody else – the last figures we received were that over 270 people each day are in court all over the UK for drink driving. They’re going to prison and not getting a suspended sentence.
‘It’s completely the wrong message, and it’s a kick in the teeth when a responsible person like a magistrate can look at that and think it’s worthy of a 16-week suspended sentence.’
Mr Scruby, a former traffic officer who attended more than 30 drink-drive deaths, added: ‘I’d like to think that anybody else that was in there would have been looking at a custodial sentence for what she’s done.
‘Sixteen weeks is way, way, way below the recommended minimum sentence, and I don’t know how the magistrates can look at themselves tonight and say they’ve done their job, because they haven’t. She’s very, very lucky, very lucky indeed – and there will be another time, unless this spoilt little princess grows up.’