A court has heard how a woman reversed her car down an embankment after downing double vodkas with her lunch.
Karen Herrick, 49, of South Cottage, Invercassley, in Sutherland, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to driving while more than the double the drink drive limit before crashing her car on May 23 this year.
The court heard that Herrick had come off the A837 between Invercassley and Rosehall.
Fiscal depute Stewart Maciver said that police had been called to the incident after a report of a woman possibly being injured after her car left the road.
Mr Maciver told Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist that it appeared that Herrick had attempted to reverse to allow an oncoming car to pass, but she had left the road and gone down an embankment.
He added: “Police traced the woman at her home address.
“It appears that she had been drinking a couple of double vodkas with her lunch at a nearby hotel.
“She was given a breath test and told the officers ‘I’m sorry’ when it returned positive.
“She also indicated to police that she had taken a further drink of vodka when she had returned home.”
Herrick’s agent, solicitor Alison Foggo, told the court that her client had returned to Scotland in November having emigrated with her family to Canada when she was 10-years-old.
She told Sheriff Gilchrist that Herrick was a widow and had recently become engaged to a local man.
However, Ms Foggo said that her client had been relying on alcohol to help her cope with the stress of relocating from Canada.
She added: “She realises that she should not have decided to drive and she deeply regrets her actions on that day.”
Sheriff Gilchrist disqualified Herrick from driving for 15 months and fined her £400.