Drunk driver admits she fled from police, crashed and tried to escape scene over a fence

A drunk driver who drove away from police, crashed and then tried to flee the scene by scaling a fence into someone’s backyard confessed to her behaviour the first time she appeared in court.

Court documents say police were patrolling Hawker late at night on Tuesday (12 July) when they saw a Holden Astra drive over two traffic islands on Belconnen Way.

Police turned on their lights and siren, but the Astra kept driving away. On Kingsford Smith Drive, the car failed to negotiate a roundabout and crashed into the back fence of a home in Higgins.

Stacey Ann Miller, 39, got out of the car and, as police watched, tried to climb the fence into the property’s backyard.

“Police pulled the defendant down from the fence onto the ground where she was handcuffed and arrested,” the documents say.

She returned a blood alcohol concentration of 0.210, over four times the legal limit, and told police she’d had a few drinks of bourbon.

Police also found she had been disqualified from driving from August 2020 to October 2022.

Miller admitted her actions the first time she appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court on Wednesday (13 July), pleading guilty to charges of damaging property, level four drink driving, driving while disqualified and failing to stop a vehicle for police.

The Scullin woman applied to be released on bail, which was opposed by prosecutor Hannah Lee.

Ms Lee was concerned about Miller endangering the safety of police and the community if she was released from custody due to her “extremely dangerous” offending.

Her criminal history already included eight counts of driving while disqualified or suspended, five counts of failing to stop for police, and she had received sentences in NSW and the ACT.

Magistrate Jane Campbell accepted it was an “extremely serious incident of very dangerous driving” and remarked her criminal history didn’t help her.

“It is her driving while drunk that is the risk to the community,” she said.

But she thought bail conditions could ameliorate the risk and granted bail.

Miller’s lawyer added her client wanted to stop drinking of her own accord.

The matter was adjourned for sentencing in the Galambany Court in September.