Model Caprice pleads guilty to drink-driving

Model Caprice pleaded guilty today to drink-driving.
The Californian-born model, whose full name is Caprice Bourret, admitted driving a Mercedes while over the legal alcohol limit.
She was arrested by a police patrol while driving in Tottenham Court Road in central London on December 10 last year.
Highbury Magistrates' Court heard today that tests revealed she was over the legal alcohol limit.
However, her solicitor, Nick Freeman, said there were "special" circumstances in that she had been taking medication which had affected how her body metabolised alcohol.
Mr Freeman, who has represented many celebrities in motoring-related cases and is known as "Mr Loophole", said the drug had taken her over the limit.
He said the drug concerned was Cipro, an anti-histamine, which Ms Bourret had been taking to treat cystitis, an infection of the bladder.
He said: "It was a consequence of something that she imbibed, i.e. Cipro, that the offence took place."
He added: "It's the extra additional matter that she took by way of medication which is the special reason.
"It relates to the offence because it is directly related to the commission of the offence.
"If she had not taken that, she would not be before the court for drink-driving."
Mr Freeman said the drug had taken his client over the limit in the same way as if she had taken cough medicine, as has been argued in other drink-driving cases.
If it is proven that the drug was responsible for pushing Ms Bourret over the alcohol limit, she could escape a mandatory driving ban.

Ms Bourret went into the witness box shortly after 11.30am and told the court that she had drunk red wine on two occasions in the 16 hours before her arrest.
She said she drank a bottle and a half of red wine during a lunch in Soho which began at 11.30am on December 9.
She added that she also ate a salad. Ms Bourret said she drove to Soho and left her car in a car park.
Asked how she felt afterwards, she said: "I felt tired, I felt like I had had a drink."
Following an interview in the afternoon at which she drank tea, Ms Bourret said she took a taxi back to her north London home and "passed out".
But that evening she took a taxi back to Soho after a friend telephoned her and invited her to a "drinks party".
Ms Bourret said she did not know the "exact amount" she drank at the party because her glass of red wine was topped up during the night.
"I do not know the exact amount," she said. "I got to the party and one of my girlfriends' friends gave me a glass of red wine and they kept topping it up. I kept the exact same glass all evening."
Ms Bourret said she left the party at around 3.45am after staying for several hours, and gave her friend a lift to a taxi.
She said it was when she stopped to drop her off that the police stopped and breathalysed her. After an initial positive reading, she was taken to a police station where a second reading revealed she had 52 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 micrograms.

Ms Bourret said she then refused to sign a printout of the reading, and she later refused to sign her formal charge sheet.
"I refused to sign it because I could not accept that I was over the limit. I wanted a blood test and I kept asking for it," she said.
Asked by her solicitor, Mr Freeman, how she felt, she replied: "I was scared and crying. I have never been put into these sorts of circumstances."
The court was told that Ms Bourret, who lives in London and South Africa, holds clean English and American driving licences.
Mr Freeman than began questioning his client about her history of cystitis, which she said she had suffered intermittently since she was a teenager.
Asked why she did not tell the custody sergeant of the condition, she said: "It was a very unique situation I was in and I knew if I told them the whole of England would know.
"I really didn't think it was pertinent. I was embarrassed. This is something that's really private and I am not liking talking about it here at all."
She said she was not aware that the Cipro tablets, of which she had taken 10 in the preceding five days, could have affected how her body dealt with alcohol until her mother warned her after she was charged.
Ms Bourret said she had to stop using the drug and now uses two alternatives, one from South Africa and one from the United States.
When asked to read the labels she struggled with the names of the drugs and said: "I'm having a blonde moment, I guess."