Published: Thursday, 4th February, 2010 2:00pm

Drink-driver set to lose her car

by Brian Hossack

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A FACTORY worker may become the first person in Inverclyde to have her car confiscated by police under tough new drink-drive laws.

Wendy Hamil, 21, was found three times the drink-drive limit in Tesco's car park in Dalrymple Street, Greenock, at 3.50am on Sunday.

The Crown asked for her Ford Fiesta to be forfeited after Hamil admitted drink-driving when she appeared from custody at Greenock Sheriff Court on Tuesday.

The incident took place just over a year after she appeared in court after being stopped in Arran Road, Gourock, after downing Buckfast and super-strength cider. Again, Hamil was three times the legal limit.

With a second conviction for drink driving within the past five years, Hamil's car could now be seized and crushed or auctioned.

Money from any sale would go into the Scottish Consolidated Fund - a public purse operated by the Scottish Government, which introduced the new laws as part of a festive blitz on drivers breaking the law.

During her appearance before Sheriff Vincent Canavan at Greenock Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Hamil, of Mount Stewart Drive, Wemyss Bay, admitted driving in the Tesco car park with 101 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The limit is 35.

During the incident in September 2008, Hamil told police she had drank been drinking just 10 minutes before being stopped.

Depute fiscal Tom Smyth said: "The police asked what she had drunk and she said 'I had a glass of Frosty Jack and a glass of cider this morning, had a shower and went out and had some Buckfast'.'

Referring to the weekend's offence, defence solicitor Aidan Gallagher said: "She sucumbed to temptation and got behind the wheel rather than get a taxi."

Sheriff Rajni Swanney deferred sentence on Hamil until next month for background reports.

A decision will be made then on the Crown's motion for confiscation of the car.

A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police said: "Since the start of December there have been 28 repeat offenders reported to the procurator fiscal, of these seven warrants have been issued for forfeiture of vehicles and two vehicles have been forfeited.

"There are four motions to be considered at future hearings and 15 which have not been considered because the vehicles have been mobility cars, company cars, stolen, owned by someone else or scrapped by the vehicle owner."

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