SOCIETY WIFE'S SECRET LIFE AS A HEROIN ADDICT

The bumper sticker on the back of Nicole Glover's crumpled Range Rover said
it all: "Life's A Mountain, Not A Beach."The wife of a senior bank
executive, Glover has experienced many of life's highs over the years.

Yesterday, she plunged to its depths.

The 36-year-old was jailed for two years after her 4WD - driven while she
was enveloped in a heroin haze - ploughed into a young pedestrian,
critically injuring her.

The vehicle involved was just one of many luxuries enjoyed by Glover -
along with a north shore home and a waterfront weekend retreat - courtesy
of her husband's vice-president's job at the Sydney branch of an American bank.

But amazingly, Mark Glover was unaware of his wife's 14-year addiction to
heroin. While he was on business trips to Singapore, Hong Kong or London,
his wife would make her own trip to a Chatswood pool hall.

There, she would pay a dealer between $40 and $80 for a small amount of the
drug, return home to Willoughby and inject it before settling down to read
or watch TV.

On August 19 last year, Glover was in the drug's grip when she left a Potts
Point cafe for Chatswood to collect her daughter from after-school care.

But at William St, Darlinghurst she failed to make a right-hand turn,
mounted the footpath and hit university student Ursula McWilliam.

Ms McWilliam, 25, was pinned beneath the vehicle and suffered severe
injuries including a damaged kidney which was later removed, a lacerated
liver, fractured arm and serious head wounds.

She spent three weeks in a coma and is still battling her injuries.

At the scene, police noticed Glover's "eyes were bloodshot, watery and
glazed ... her eyelids were drooping".

A blood analysis revealed 0.038mg/litre of morphine in her system - a
substance which is present after heroin use.

Glover, who pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing grievous bodily
harm and driving under the influence of heroin, admitted using the drug
occasionally "over the past 14 years".

Yesterday, Mark Glover told the District Court he had not known of his
wife's heroin habit.

He said he and his wife separated last October. But he said she was now
drug-free.

Chief Judge Reg Blanch said he would normally consider an alternative to
full-time jail in such a case.

But, with two drink-driving offences on her record, a full-time sentence
was appropriate, he said.

Glover buried her head in her hands and wept after being sentenced to a
maximum of two years' jail, with a minimum term of nine months.