Cosmetic surgery boss who necked son’s leftover party drink avoids driving ban after claiming nose jobs left her unable to taste or smell the vodka inside
Michelle Butterworth, 37, downed the drink the morning after thinking it was just juice
A GLAMOROUS cosmetic surgery boss caught drink-driving after a rush-hour crash escaped a road ban after telling court she drank orange juice for breakfast - not realising it had vodka in it.
Michelle Butterworth, 37, was getting ready for work the morning after a party when she picked up a pint glass from her kitchen top and knocked back the contents.
She told a court that two ops on her nose meant her taste and sense of smell were "poor", so she couldn't taste the booze.
But as she dropped off two passengers at a shopping mall at 8.40am, aesthetic nurse Butterworth - dressed in hospital scrubs - bumped her Renault Clio into the back of another vehicle at a pedestrian crossing.
Cops found she was almost twice the legal limit, but Butterworth insisted she hadn't been drinking.
But she told court she only discovered the juice contained vodka when she got home from the police station and her son told her he mixed the drink for a friend the night before.
Butterworth, who gives anti-wrinkle injections, dermal fillers and lip enhancements at her business in Swinton, Greater Manchester, admitted drink-driving at Manchester magistrates' court.
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But she escaped with an absolute discharge and no disqualification after JPs said they were ''special reasons'' not to ban her from the roads.
The incident occurred last November after Butterworth, from Urmston, threw a party to mark her moving to Harborne, Birmingham.
She told the hearing she had three large glasses of white wine the night before and stopped drinking at 9.30pm or 10pm after making dinner for friends.
She said: "I had work the next day and I am injecting people's faces so I couldn't be feeling rough my mind has to be clear.
"When I woke up the next morning I felt absolutely fine.
"I couldn't get my head round it all so when I get home I discussed it with my son and I had drunk the orange juice and that is when the penny dropped."
Her son Lewis Woods, 19, said: "We were drinking till about three in the morning but my mother was asleep.
"Later in the evening we ran out of mixer and so I used the orange juice in the fridge.
''But as I poured the juice I remembered that my friend doesn't like orange juice with bits in it so I ended up just leaving it on the side and we called it a night."
But prosecutor Marion Nolan said tests showed Mrs Butterworth had 57 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath with the legal limit being 35mg, and an expert report said the spiked drink argument "didn't add up".
Nolan said a police officer who saw Butterworth at the station said her eyes were glazed over and she smelt of alcohol.
But clearing Butterworth, magistrates said the evidence of her and her son was "clear and consistent".
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