Natalie Kopman stole a man's car after a one-night stand to avoid a so-called 'walk of shame'
A woman who had a one-night stand was arrested after drunkenly driving off in her lover's BMW the following morning to avoid a 'walk of shame'.
Natalie Kopman was found to be almost three times the drink driving limit in the stolen car after she failed to find her home town of Bury and ended up in Burnley, Lancashire.
The 31-year-old also had two complete strangers in the back of the vehicle when she was stopped by police.
Her date from the previous night, Alan Shaw, raised the alarm after he woke up in his home in Stockport and reported his car missing.
Details of her crimes emerged at Burnley Magistrates Court when Kopman, now of Chorley, Lancashire, pleaded guilty to taking a vehicle without consent, drink driving and having no insurance.
She was given an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and disqualified from driving for two years. She was also ordered to pay £165 costs.
Kopman and Mr Shaw had met in Joe's Bar in Manchester's Northern Quarter on January 24 last year and hit it off, before going back to his flat. They spent the following day drinking again before falling asleep.
But at around 4am, Kopman woke up, took the keys to his BMW from the sofa and crept out of the flat.
She then picked up two passengers who asked to be taken to Burnley, Lancashire and agreed.
Police were alerted to the vehicle having been taken following Mr Shaw's call and Kopman was apprehended in the forecourt of a service station in Burnley.
When breathalysed at the scene, she provided a reading of 98 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mg.
When she sobered up, Kopman said Mr Shaw was a nice man who 'didn't deserve to be messed around'.
She admitted to police: 'It must have been a big shock for him to wake up and see his car was taken and he must have thought he wasn't getting it back.'
Tracy Yates, prosecuting, told the court: 'After spending the day together drinking and that evening, she got up in the early hours and decided to go back to Manchester.
'She saw the keys on the sofa and said that if she asked he would have declined, so snook out of the premises in possession of the keys and drove back to Manchester before meeting two other people and subsequently driving from Manchester to Burnley.'
Her lawyer insisted that, when sober, Kopman is a 'bright, intelligent, articulate' young woman
Kopman says she intended to return the vehicle. Her lawyer said she is totally different person when drunk
The prosecutor added: 'She is adamant she would have returned the car and had no intention to permanently deprive him of it. She acknowledges it was only a matter of luck that she and other members of the public remained unscathed.'
Kopman's lawyer Ellen Vaughan said her client was not the same person sober as she is drunk, and had not touched alcohol since the incident.
She stressed that Kopman didn't want to keep the car and she left her purse and handbag at Mr Shaw's flat.
Kopman was given a suspended sentence and banned from the road for two years
'It might be that the court is surprised when they see Miss Kopman having anticipated what the case is about,' she said. 'I was when I met her.
'This incident here is symptomatic of where she had unraveled. Clearly the use of alcohol puts other people at risk and her at risk.
'She got incredibly drunk in Manchester, went back to a virtual stranger's house, ended up spending the night and the following day in a drunken haze which him and woke up in the small hours and thought, "I will borrow his car".'
Ms Vaughan added: 'There is no nefarious reason for her to take the car other than she didn't want to be where she had woken up
'She more or less certainly would not have behaved this way had she been sober.
'When sober she is a bright, intelligent, articulate young woman who could make plenty of her life.
'Last year while in drink she climbed a tree and fell out breaking vertebrae in her back. But she is optimistic she will return to work.
'Now she is sober she recognises what she did is quite chilling. She is well brought up from a good family with a good education and she is making a mess of it.'
Sentencing Kopman, magistrate Lynn Kemp added: 'It is hard to reconcile what we have heard with what we see before us.
'You had passengers in the vehicle and a considerable distance was driven before you were picked up and arrested.
'There was potential for absolute disaster during that drive to yourself and others. This might be the big wake-up call you need.'
The magistrate in Burnley said Kopman's drink driving could has caused an 'absolute disaster'
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