A woman who was four times the drink-drive limit was caught by police at the wheel of a parked car while trying to “sleep it off”, a court heard.

Denyse Elizabeth McDermott, 51, of Mariners View in Ardrossan, appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last week and pled guilty to one charge.

Depute Fiscal Peter Moyes told the court that a witness was driving on the A737 south between Beith and Dalry just after midnight on May 5 when they observed the vehicle in front “swerving over the roadway and across the central line several times and strike a grass verge”.

Mr Moyes added: “The witness was concerned about their driving and they contacted the police and told them where the vehicle was.”

Police traced the car to outside a property in the Mill Park area of Dalry. The lights were off, but the engine was running and McDermott was in the driver’s seat. On opening the door, officers detected “a very strong smell of alcohol”.

McDermott got out the vehicle and was unsteady on her feet and had to support herself against the car.

She stated: “I was driving, I’m sorry. I’ve been drinking and driving.”

McDermott was arrested and taken to Saltcoats Police Office, where she was found to have 90 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit in Scotland is 22 in 100.

Defending McDermott, solicitor Brian Holliman said that his client had turned into the Mill Park area “with the intention of parking and sleeping it off”.

He added: “The circumstances are she started work very early that day and visited a friend in Beith that evening with the intention that she would stay with that friend overnight.

“She had little to eat that day and several glasses of wine. She was very upset that evening about the passing of her mother. She had driven a comparatively short distance between Beith and Dalry.

“When the police arrived, she was fully cooperative with them and accepted that she had been driving under the influence. She’s pled guilty at the first opportunity; there’s nothing directly analogous.”

McDermott was disqualified from driving for 15 months and fined £280.