A POSTAL worker was almost four times over the drink-drive limit when she drove to Skipton Morrisons after work, heard magistrates.

Members of staff refused to sell Sarah Cox alcohol in the afternoon of September 3, believing she had driven to the store, the Skipton court heard on Friday. The store manager went to the car park where she was standing next to a Ford Fiesta with her car keys, the court heard.

Cox, 48, told staff it was ‘none of their business’ and that she wanted her son to take her home. The police were called and when an officer arrived, Cox was sitting in her son’s vehicle, the court heard.

She was unsteady on her feet, and a roadside breath test was positive. At the police station she was found to have 139 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35.

Cox told police she worked in the Royal Mail sorting office in Skipton. Inside her bag at the time there were two juice bottles that had been emptied and refilled with wine and gin, said prosecutor, Nadine Clough.

Cox, who admitted drink-driving, had gone home from work on the day and had consumed ‘vast quantities’ of alcohol before driving to Morrisons at around 3.30pm the court heard.

In mitigation, Julian White, said Cox, who was supported in court by a Post Office union representative, was recently divorced, had a lot of debt and major issues in her life. She described herself as a ‘binge-drinker’.

On September 3, she had gone to Morrisons to buy some food to cook a meal for someone she had just met. Mr White said: “To alleviate her nerves and anxiety, she had drank. She realised she did not have what she needed to make a meal that night, and so she went to Morrisons. She was seriously inebriated.”

Magistrates made an interim driving ban and adjourned sentencing for an all- option report.

Cox, of Sharphaw Avenue, Skipton, will be sentenced at Harrogate Magistrates Court on October 20.