A woman who was caught trying to drink-drive has been spared punishment after claiming she wanted to get a friend to hospital after he was assaulted.

Mia Elliott, 20, admitted to getting behind the wheel after drinking five cocktails on a night out with friends in Heswall, Merseyside, in January this year.

Shortly after 2am, one of her pals, Brooklyn Connis, was beaten up outside Suede nightclub.

Police officers driving in a patrol car nearby then saw Elliott run past looking ‘distressed’, with a different male friend in tow, Wirral Magistrates Court heard.

After turning their patrol car around to ‘check on her welfare’, they found her sat in a VW Polo with the headlights on and the engines running.

Paula Grogan, prosecuting, said: ‘They spoke with her and it became apparent that she was intoxicated. They could smell alcohol and her speech was slurred slightly.

‘She was subsequently arrested and taken to custody. She did make a comment to one of the officers at the scene that she had to take somebody to hospital but the officers were unable to work out who she meant.’

Inspector Danny Murphy told the hearing: ‘She said something along the lines of “There’s a male injured down there”, but she did not expand further on that at that point.

‘She was upset and distressed and she started crying. I started to put her at ease a little. I could understand that she was in a difficult situation.

‘She was taken to Wirral custody suite, but nothing else was mentioned about a male being injured.’

At a formal police interview, Elliott answered only to say: ‘No comment.’

But in court she gave a full account of her evening, blaming legal advice she received in custody for her responses at interview.

Deciding to represent herself, she said: ‘I have never been in this situation before and the lawyer’s advice was to give “No comment”.

‘I was more than happy to have told the truth in the interview – but I just believed the lawyers. If I had been given better legal advice I would have just answered all the questions.’

She insisted she had drunk plenty of water during her night out and had not had any alcoholic beverages for two hours by the time she got in her car.

Describing the moment a friend told her of Brooklyn’s assault, she said: ‘I went outside and went over and there was a lot of blood on his face.

‘He was claiming he could not see, that he could not breathe and over time he began to claim that he was going to pass out. I asked if an ambulance had been called.

‘My friend Daisy had phoned for an ambulance but 15 minutes went by and there was no sign of it coming.

‘Brooklyn was only getting worse and again saying he was going to pass out. We phoned for an ambulance again and after some time it did not seem like it was arriving.’

‘With a head injury, all I know is that sooner the better getting medical care. It was quite clear he needed it.

‘That’s when I suggested that I drive him, as I was the only person with a car nearby. Everyone was in agreement. My friends would never let me get in the car if I was under the influence of alcohol but I believed that I was okay to drive.’

Mr Connis confirmed he had been assaulted and spent 12 hours in hospital after an ambulance arrived five minutes later, but did not make a formal report about the incident.

Elliott’s friend, Daisy Moran, said she witnessed the assault and ‘believed that Mia was not over the limit’, adding that it did not cross her mind to call police.

Prosecutors questioned why Elliott did not flag down the police officers who arrested her.

Ms Grogan added: ‘If she was truly in an emergency situation where somebody needed immediate help would she have walked or ran right past a marked police vehicle, basically an emergency first responder.’

Another officer who appeared before the court, Sgt Peter Jenkins, said Elliott ‘constantly apologised’ while being driven to the police station but made no mention of an injured friend.

The court heard police found no record of nearby incidents at the time except a minor argument outside a kebab shop, and found no reports of an ambulance being called.

Elliott pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of a car but received an absolute discharge from court and will not have any points added to her licence.

Chair of the magistrates, Geoff Green, told Elliott ‘the experience of going to court has been punishment enough’.

He said: ‘The evidence we have heard from you leads us to believe that you were doing the right thing in helping Brooklyn. We do find there are special reasons.

‘The reason for that is that we thought you were doing the right thing in an emergency situation to help your friend in peril.’

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