A MAN has been given his third drink-driving conviction as he drove to Clacks while almost four times' the legal limit.

David Sweeney lost his way to Sauchie and was found by police parked at the side of the road in west Fife.

Sweeney, 38, of Third Avenue, Auchinloch, North Lanarkshire, appeared in the dock at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He admitted that on May 17, on Sunnyside Road, Oakley, he drove after consuming excess alcohol.

His reading was 84 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the limit being 22 microgrammes.

Depute fiscal Dev Kapadia said that at around 11am, police on mobile patrol saw Sweeney's vehicle parked at the side of the road.

They parked behind him and approached his car. The engine was running and Sweeney was on his mobile phone.

He told officers he was "trying to get to the Sauchie area".

The court heard this was Sweeney's third drink-driving conviction, the previous ones being in 2003 and 2005.

Defence solicitor Graham Basten said: "He works at Asda and recently he's been working around the clock.

"He had been drinking the night before and was coming through from the west to see a friend.

"He recognises that he shouldn't have been driving and regrets his own stupidity."

Sheriff Alastair Brown told Sweeney: "Drink-drivers kill people and you've done it twice before this.

"You've got to get it into your head that when you drink you don't get behind the wheel."

He warned him if he re-offended he could be seeing the inside of a prison cell.

The sheriff fined Sweeney £840 and banned him from driving for 32 months.