Police were contacted after Thomas Mills, 23, of Brucehill Road was seen getting in to the Renault Clio at St James’s Retail Park on September 12.

When Mills appeared for sentencing at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, fiscal depute Claire Martin revealed: “The accused was at Asda and was approached by a member of staff, but said he was not going to drive his car.

“However, he got into the car and was again approached by the same member of staff but drove off.

“The police were contacted and he was traced to his own address where he answered the door to officers. When questioned he said that he had just gone to Asda and back.” Mills was breath-tested and gave a positive result of 121mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, the legal limit is 35mg.

He entered a guilty plea to the charge when he appeared in court from custody following the incident.

Mills’ solicitor, Kenny Clark told the court: “He has been driving for six years and my lord will appreciate he is a first offender. He co-operated with police officers and a night in the cells was a short, sharp shock to him.

“He is both embarrassed and ashamed by this and has also caused embarrassment to his family of which he is aware.

“He requires to work shifts at 6am and there is no public transport available so a disqualification will cause him problems financially as he will need to get taxis.

“I have the indication that there is almost no risk of this man reoffending and I would submit that this could be dealt with by means of a monetary penalty and a period of disqualification. Unpaid work would be problematic for him but he would not be unwilling to carry it out.” Referring to the breath-test reading and a social work report prepared for the court, Sheriff Eric Brown said: “The reading here is very high and according to the report you appreciate that what you did was very foolish.

“Someone else tried to intervene to stop you driving the car but you drove it. This could have led to you injuring yourself or injuring or killing someone else.

“The cost of travelling to your work is an unavoidable consequence of this type of behaviour.” The sheriff ordered Mills to carry out 66 hours of unpaid work in the community and fined him £400. He was disqualified from driving for 20 months, this was backdated to September.