Yahoo News Drunk mum-of-two who tried to smoke as she swigged duty-free vodka on flight avoids jail
A drunk mum-of-two who caused chaos on a budget flight trying to light four cigarettes as she swigged from duty-free vodka has avoided jail.
Edyta Skubala, 40, lit up an hour into her flight from Poznan in Poland to Bristol in December last year and despite being stopped by staff, just 10 minutes later she attempted to light another cigarette.
Skubala of Broxholme Lane, Doncaster, pleaded guilty to being drunk in an aircraft when she appeared at Bristol Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.
Clare Fear, prosecuting, told the court that when staff asked to see her boarding pass Skubala screamed at them in Polish to “f**k off”.
She then stumbled to the toilet, so drunk she needed support, where cabin crew made her use the bathroom with the door open in case she started smoking again.
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Police officers were waiting at Bristol Airport to arrest the “heavily intoxicated” mum and take her to a police station.
She was put into a police van where the officer said she continued to ask for cigarettes on the way to the station.
The court heard Skubalat was flying to Bristol so she could look for a job in nearby Avonmouth, with her partner who lives in Doncaster.
Rupert Russell, defending, said “she had not intended to cause danger or alarm on the flight.
He added: “She was simply too drunk to listen to instructions or recognise the danger she was causing.”
Skubala had been living in the UK for four years prior to the offence and had travelled back to Poland for her aunt’s funeral.
She was sentenced to 180 hours of unpaid work as part of a community order and made to pay a statutory surcharge of £85 and £165 prosecution costs – a total of £250.
