Woman claimed she “gulped” vodka before police arrived

A High Valleyfield woman found guilty of drink driving was more than five times over the legal limit when she was breathalysed by police.

Margaret Fulton, 52, of Forth Crescent, was convicted following a trial at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

She denied drink driving in Valleyfield Avenue, High Valleyfield, on March 15 last year.

However, Sheriff Charles MacNair found Fulton guilty of the charge and banned her from driving while she awaits sentencing.

Fulton’s reading was 123 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, against the legal limit of 22 microgrammes.

She claimed she had not been drinking before driving to a shop for cigarettes but shop owner Asif Saeed, 32, told the court he could smell alcohol on her breath and said she was “walking as if she was drunk”.

Fulton said the police came to her door about 15 minutes after she returned home from the shop.

She claimed she had filled a “really tall glass of vodka and fresh orange”, which she “gulped down in a oner” in that time.

She also old police nobody had been driving her car that morning.

Asked by defence solicitor Ian Beatson why she had said this, Fulton replied: “That was because the week before police had come to my door accusing me of drink-driving.

“I thought it was a vendetta,” she added.

Fulton previously admitted a second charge of failing to tell police the name of the person who had been driving her vehicle.

Sheriff MacNair imposed an interim diving ban and Fulton will be sentenced on July 25.