A WOMAN who crashed into parked cars then fled the scene in Newmills was found by police stumbling in the middle of the road with blue foam coming from her mouth.

Sarah Watson, 24, had previously been spotted driving erratically, mounting the kerb on several occasions before hitting two vehicles.

Appearing for sentencing at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Wednesday, she had earlier admitted that on July 7 last year, on Main Street, Newmills, and elsewhere in Fife, she drove without due care and attention, failed to maintain proper control of the car, causing it to spin, repeatedly mounted a kerb and collided with two vehicles.

As a provisional licence-holder, she drove when not accompanied by a qualified driver and when not displaying L plates and she also had no insurance.

Watson, of Abel Place, also admitted that having had an accident when she collided with two cars, causing severe damage to all the vehicles, she failed to stop and give her name and address.

She also drove while unfit to through drink or drugs.

Depute fiscal Joanne Smith said a witness saw Watson mount the kerb a number of times in a short space of time before striking two other vehicles that were parked on Main Street with so much impact that one of the cars had its wheels lifted up off the road.

The man who had been watching Watson's erratic behaviour stopped his car in front of her vehicle to prevent it from leaving before contacting the police.

Watson and her passenger got out of the car and made their way on foot towards the coastal path at Torryburn.

When police officers arrived, they noted fairly sustained, severe collision damage to the vehicles and found Watson about 300 metres away. She was stumbling in the middle of the road, had slurred speech, was unsteady on her feet and had a blue foam dripping from her mouth.

She admitted to being the driver and provided a specimen of breath which showed alcohol content to be 32 microgrammes.

After being assessed by an ambulance crew, she was deemed fit to be taken into custody. No blood was taken to check for drugs as the doctor could not find a vein.

Solicitor Roshi Josni said the seriousness of the incident was not lost on her client and she had since ceased all illicit substance misuse.

"The commission of the various offences was over a year ago in July 2016 and the steps have been taken since that time to effectively clean up her act and stay out of trouble and this appears to be something she has done since," she said.

"In particular, the steps she has taken to address the root cause of offending. She has stability on a methadone prescription and she has ended the relationship she was in which was seen as a negative relationship.

"She is fearful of a further custodial sentence. Steps she has taken since the commission of these offences would be entirely undone by the imposition of a custodial sentence."

Sheriff Charles Macnair told Watson she had "no business|" to be behind the wheel.

"The consequences of driving through a village during lunchtime when you were unfit to do so through drink and or drugs can be catastrophic.

"Having regard to your good progress since then, however, I am just prepared to deal with this by way of a non-custodial sentence.

He fined her a total of £585, placed her on a community payback order requiring her to perform 135 hours of unpaid work within six months and banned her from driving for 22 months.