A driver found slumped over the steering wheel of a parked car when three times the drink drive limit has kept her licence.

But a second driver who was slightly over the drink drive limit has been banned from driving for a year.

Both Cheryl Lisa Bernadette Jefferson, who was arrested in Mill Lane, Wigginton with an empty wine bottle at her side, and Lisa Evans, who was stopped by police in Riccall Lane, Kelfield, appeared before York magistrates sitting at York Crown Court.

The magistrates had had to move out of their own courthouse because its administrative offices and cells were flooded.

Jefferson, 37, of Osmington Gardens, Strensall, pleaded guilty to failure to provide a breath sample when in charge of a car, an offence for which a driving ban is not compulsory.

Martin Butterworth, prosecuting, said she gave a reading that was three times the drink drive limit by the roadside, but "wilfully refused" to take a breath test at Fulford Road Police Station in order for police to have evidence of her alcohol level that could be used in court.

He said the CPS could not prove that she had drunk the wine before driving to where she parked the car, so could not charge her with drink driving.

Senior magistrate Malcolm Smith said had she been on a charge of drink driving, they would have banned her from driving for two years.

"You were discovered at the side of the road in a totally incapable condition to drive," he said.

Magistrates put ten points on her licence and fined her £250 with a £25 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs.

Her solicitor Julian Tanikal said banning her would cost her her job in accounts at a construction company and could cost her family their mortgage, among other problems.

She had driven to Mill Lane to drink the wine on December 16 because she would have been in trouble if she had drunk it at home.

Evans, 50, of The Crescent, Kelfield, pleaded guilty to drink driving at 9am on December 15. She was fined £135 with a £20 statutory surcharge and £85 prosecution costs. She told the court she had been drinking the night before and had thought she was safe to drive.