SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A Yellowknife woman found passed out drunk in her vehicle after an AA meeting got her wish Jan. 12 in territorial court when Judge Christine Gagnon spared her from jail and gave her an 18-month conditional discharge so she can get help for her alcohol addiction.

Gagnon ruled it would "not be contrary to the public interest to grant a discharge" and the public would be better served if Catherine Fairbairn, 55, received treatment for her alcoholism. Gagnon said there's a "realistic possibility" the woman can be rehabilitated.

At Fairbairn's Dec. 3 sentencing hearing, Crown prosecutor Blair MacPherson recommended a jail term of eight to 10 months and a driving ban of eight to 10 years.

"Even with the best treatment, she was unable to stay away from alcohol, and not only that, stay away from drinking and driving," MacPherson said.

Fairbairn's lawyer Rod Gregory countered this by explaining his client has been sober since the May 11, 2010 incident and attends AA meetings three times a week.

She also takes Antabuse, a medication that induces vomiting when alcohol is consumed. Fairbairn is planning to return to the Lander Treatment Centre in Edmonton after one year of sobriety for further treatment, her lawyer said.

She pleaded guilty to an earlier impaired driving charge, laid after she slammed into the back of another vehicle at the Franklin Avenue and Gitzel Street intersection and then drove away on June 26, 2009, at around 8:30 a.m.

Fairbairn also pleaded guilty to being intoxicated and in care and control of a motor vehicle when on May 11, 2010, she left an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and sat in her vehicle drinking wine until she passed out. When the RCMP arrived, officers tried several times to wake her up by knocking on the window. She finally did wake up, and reached for the keys lying in the console between the driver and passenger's seat. Ignoring the officers' commands, she tried starting the vehicle several times before finally giving up and exiting it. She was arrested. At the detachment, she provided a breathalyzer sample of 230 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, which is almost three times the legal limit.

Gagnon recounted Fairbairn's previous testimony that she began as a social drinker but when she moved to Yellowknife in 1997 she started drinking heavily "to reduce stress and fight her loneliness" of being separated from her family still residing in Edmonton. Her alcoholism escalated to the point where she would also drink in the morning "to get through the day," explained Gagnon.

The conditions of Fairbairn's sentence include a six-year driving ban, a $1,000 fine, 100 hours of community service and a restitution order in the amount of $656 for the damage she caused to the other vehicle June 26, 2009.

Fairbairn must also attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings at least twice a week and maintain a sponsor through the program.

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