Speeding business woman banned from the roads

By James Connell


A BUSINESSWOMAN already hit hard by the floods wept as she was hit with a further blow - a six month driving ban.

Edina Hathaway pleaded exceptional hardship to try to escape the ban after points on her licence reached 12.

Hathaway of New Street, Ledbury, runs a gift shop called Edina Fine Cottons & Gifts in Upton-upon-Severn, which has already lost money because of the floods.

She told Worcester magistrates on Monday, as the ban was imposed, that she doesn't know how she will manage now.

Hathaway, aged 59, admitted driving at 36mph in 30mph on the A4104 Marlbank Road on November 3 last year.

She already had nine points on her licence, but pleaded exceptional hardship on the grounds a ban would damage her business.

Hathaway had already said in a letter to the court that a ban would be "disastrous" to her business, in Old Street.

She added in court there was no public transport and that taxis were too expensive and impractical for her to carry stock between her Ledbury home and work.

Hathaway said she took home £13,000 a year and could not afford to have a driver or pay for taxis.

She said: "If you could only see my income and the loss of income because of the floods over the last couple of years. How would I get my stock from A to B? It would be very difficult for me."

She told magistrates she should possibly have appealed against one conviction for speeding on August 21 last year, just three days after her ex-husband, who she was still very close to, died suddenly.

Magistrates said they were "sympathetic" but gave her three penalty points, taking her total to 12, and imposed the six month ban.

She was fined £150, ordered to pay costs of £60 and a victim surcharge of £15.

After the hearing, Hathaway was too upset to speak to your Worcester News about the sentence.