A NURSE avoided a jail sentence yesterday despite being found slumped over the wheel of her car more than five times over the drink-drive limit.

Harrogate magistrates ordered Alison Paines to carry out 180 hours of unpaid community work and pay £70 costs. She was also banned from driving for three-years.

She admitted being in charge of a car while her blood alcohol level was 433 milligrammes, compared with the legal limit of 80.

Sentence on Paines, 39, had been deferred from April to allow her time to seek treatment for her drink problems.

Stephanie Brown, prosecuting, said those problems had culminated in her being found by police in her car in Park Parade, Harrogate, at noon, on February 6.

Mrs Brown said Paines, of Wetherby Road, Harrogate, was alone in the car at the time. She told officers she had parked up and drunk a bottle of vodka before making a visit to her mother-in-law.

Geoffrey Rogers, for Paines, said there had been a lot of difficulties in Paines' personal life.

At the April court hearing, Mr Rogers had said that Paines, a practice nurse at a Harrogate GP's surgery, sat in her car for between one and two hours drinking "fairly rapidly".

She had intended going to see her mother-in-law but did not feel brave enough to approach her with her troubles.

Paines had originally turned to drink when she had difficulty sleeping, the court heard.

But then a close friend died in a car crash, her mother had been diagnosed with cancer and her sister had also been ill.