A talented lawyer from Ayr caused £6,000 worth of damage to her car during a crash at a hospital - when she was five-times the drink-drive limit.

Kay McFarlane, who is the director of law firm Mair Matheson Solicitors Ltd, scraped her personal reg-emblazoned vehicle along railings as she drove round a roundabout at Crosshouse Hospital, near Kilmarnock.

McFarlane, of Kintyre Avenue, Ayr, was driving so carelessly another motorist had to perform an emergency stop to avoid a collision.

And when McFarlane, 34, was detained and taken to the police station and provided a blood sample to police, it emerged she had 279 milligrams of alcohol in 100ml of blood - more than five-and-a-half-times the 50mlg limit.

The details of the July 23, 2019, offences emerged when McFarlane pleaded guilty to charges of drink-driving and careless driving at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court this week.

The hearing had been scheduled to call in the building’s court one, and was listed for that court, but it was moved to the building’s court four, without warning.

Court staff claimed this was because Sheriff Michael Higgins was sitting in court four, while Sheriff George Jamieson was presiding over the business in court one.

A court insider said: “McFarlane will have appeared before Sheriff Jamieson previously, as he is a resident sheriff at Kilmarnock, and she often acts for clients in that jurisdiction, in both civil and criminal matters.

“But Sheriff Higgins is a newly-appointed Sheriff and McFarlane has probably never appeared before him professionally - meaning it was ‘cleaner’ for him to do her caseas he has no knowledge of her.”

Defence Solicitor Advocate Simon Brown told Sheriff Higgins that McFarlane, who is the joint Director of Mair Matheson Solicitors Ltd, in Newmilns,admitted she was an alcoholic.

He explained: “Her difficulties began following the death of her father.

“She went to Alcoholics Anonymous in 2019.”

He said she had taken “significant steps” to get sober for good but had relapsed and committed the offence after falling off the wagon.

He said she had been to her GP to seek help and that her licence had been revoked in September last year due to her alcoholism.

He said that, at the end of last year, she spent time at Woodlands View, a residential detoxification facility in Irvine, and had left sober.

And he said that she had not drank since and had been told she would not lose her job at the firm she runs, where 72-year-old Andrew Matheson is also a Director, despite losing her licence.

After hearing that the crash had caused £6,000 worth of damage to her car, that she had to pay for, and that East Ayrshire Council would be looking to recover the cost of the damage to the railings from her, Sheriff Higgins deferred sentence until next month.

As he did so, he said: “I’m going to have to call for a [Criminal Justice Social Work] Report, because I’m concerned about the [alcohol] reading.”

McFarlane, who could be caged for up to a year for the offences, will also be assessed on her suitability for a Restriction of Liberty Order - which would see her fitted with an electronic tag and having to remain within her home in Ayr every night for a specified period of time.