A drink driver more than four times over the limit has been handed a community sentence with 200 hours’ unpaid work by Skipton magistrates.

Nicola Rose, 48, who also received a three-year driving ban, had driven a short distance from Embsay on February 1 when a member of the public alerted police, the court heard on Friday.

Rose had decided herself she was not fit to drive and had pulled over just outside Embsay and had waited with the member of the public for the police to arrive.

She was taken to Skipton police station where she was found to have 152 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Rose, who admitted drink driving, had been dependent on alcohol for some years, the court heard in mitigation. Defence solicitor John Mewies said she was an accountant by profession but had been off sick from her job with a large multi-national company for two years.

He said Rose, who had been driving between old and new addresses, had decided she was not fit to drive and had stopped with the intention of getting a taxi.

But she had been seen by someone concerned about her manner of driving.

The court heard that Rose’s 27-year marriage had come to an end, she was in the process of moving out of the family house and had just attended a family funeral.

Rose, of Browns Court, Bradley, was ordered to pay costs of £85 and a victim surcharge of £60.

She was not offered the drink driver’s rehabilitation course, which would have reduced her ban by a quarter.