A DRUG driver was so intoxicated slumped behind the wheel of his powerful sports car that he looked like he could be DEAD.

Police had to smash the passenger window of Jamie McLaughlin's Audi TT and haul him out after he gave 'no reaction whatsoever' to attempts to rouse him.

His hands and neck were 'blueish purple' when officers arrived to find him motionless in the white-coloured vehicle.

McLaughlin had parked beside a fuel pump at the BP petrol station on Greenock's Inverkip Road at 3am but there was no activity around his car for 20 minutes until a taxi driver arrived to fill up.

Prosecutor David Glancy told Greenock Sheriff Court: "An employee who is not allowed to leave his kiosk at that time in the morning asked the taxi driver to check on the person in the TT.

"He reported that the driver appeared to be slumped in the vehicle, and due to obvious concerns the police were contacted.

"Officers approached the vehicle, which still had its engine running and doors locked.

"The driver's hands and neck appeared to be blueish purple in colour."

Fiscal depute Mr Glancy added: "Police banged on the window to attract the attention of the driver but there was no reaction whatsoever from within the car.

"Officers had to resort to smashing the passenger window to unlock the car and gain entry.

"The driver was removed, not without some difficulty, from the car.

"He was slurring his words and was unsteady on his feet."

The court was told that a doctor who was called in to assess Mclaughlin more than an hour after his 3.50am arrest 'aborted' the consultation because it would have been unsafe to carry out impairment tests.

Mr Glancy said: "The patient was extremely drowsy and fell asleep repeatedly during the consultation.

"He was unable to keep still for his blood pressure to be taken because he was swaying in a chair, and his eyes were closed throughout."

A package labelled Methocarbamol — which is a central muscle relaxant — was seized by police from Mclaughlin's car.

Blood tests revealed cocaine in his system as well as high levels of two different types of metabolites from the class A drug.

He pleaded guilty to driving whilst unfit through drink or drugs.

McLaughlin, of Clydeview Road, committed the offence on April 13 last year.

Defence lawyer Aidan Gallagher said: "It is unfortunate in the extreme that he got himself into this state, and it is through good fortune perhaps that nothing worse happened with regard to any impact on others.

"Disqualification will cause great inconvenience for him to get to his place of work but he appreciates that he brought this on himself."

Sheriff Derek Hamilton told McLaughlin: "Clearly you were extremely impaired and we don't need drug tests to show that."

The lawman banned him from driving for 26 months and told him it would have been 30 months were it not for his guilty plea. He also fined the first offender £850, reduced from £1,000.

McLaughlin has been ordered to pay the fine at a rate of £100 per week and warned that if he misses a single instalment he will go directly to jail.

He gave a thumbs up as he left the dock.