A NURSE who was caught sitting in the driver’s seat of her car when five times the drink-drive limit has been found guilty of being drunk in charge of a vehicle.

Emma Moody was seen by a member of the public drinking vodka in her car in Barbourne Lane, near Gheluvelt Park, Worcester, on Thursday, September 29.

Police were called and when officers arrived, they found two empty bottles of vodka in the car along with a third which was unopened. There were also clothes and toiletries in the silver Renault Megane.

Dale Sheehan, prosecuting at Worcester Magistrates Court, said Moody was sitting in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition. She smelled strongly of alcohol.

The 38-year-old, of Butchers Walk, Fernhill Heath, failed a roadside breath test and was taken to Worcester police station, where she gave a lower reading of 175mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

Moody was arrested at about 4.30pm. An expert said that she wouldn’t have been legal to drive until 11.30am the following day and the alcohol wouldn’t have completely left her system until 3.30pm.

In interview, Moody said she had suffered a difficult marriage breakdown over the past two years and had been living with her parents in Fernhill Heath.

In the days leading up to her arrest, she said she had been staying in B&Bs in the Barbourne area.

Moody pleaded not guilty to the charge. She said she had been using her car as a base and said she wanted to “discreetly drink in the comfort of her own car”.

She said the keys were in the ignition to work the radio, windows and air conditioning. Moody denied intending to drive and said she was going to walk to a B&B then catch a bus to her parents’ in the morning.

Mr Sheehan said: “You are tailoring your evidence to fit the expert’s report. You were intending to drive either that night or the following morning.”

Judith Kenney, defending said her client had worked as a nurse for the past 20 years, had a clean licence and was of good character.

Finding her guilty of being drunk in charge of a vehicle, chairman of the bench Claire Pilling said: “It is clear she had every intention to drive to transport her belongings to wherever she intended to stay that night.”

The case was adjourned until Thursday, November 17, when Moody will be sentenced.