A talented law firm director died just hours before she was due in court for crashing her car into railings outside a hospital while drunk.

Tragic Kay McFarlane was five times over the limit when she crashed while going round a roundabout at Crosshouse Hospital near Kilmarnock, Scotland, last summer.

The 34-year-old, of Mair Mathieson Solicitors, was to be sentenced at Ayr Sheriff Court yesterday accepting a drink drive charge, before her sudden death on Wednesday.

Speaking in court, Simon Brown, defending, had said his client, who was five times over the limit during the incident, was an alcoholic who had struggled to come to terms with her father's death.

A legal source, speaking to the Daily Record, said: “What a poor girl. She was talented but had a lot of issues to overcome.”

Another added: “She was a very capable and confident young solicitor, doing well professionally, and running her own firm. It’s utterly, utterly tragic, 34 is no age at all.”

McFarlane caused £6,000 of damage to her car when she scraped it along the railings in July 2019, with the court previously hearing the lawyer, of Ayr, was driving so carelessly another driver was forced to perform an emergency stop.

She was arrested and taken to the a police station to provide a blood sample, giving a reading of 279 milligrams of alcohol in 100ml of blood – more than five-and-a-half-times the 50mg limit.

The solicitor pleaded guilty to charges of drink-driving and careless driving at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last month.

Mr Brown told Sheriff Higgins that McFarlane, the joint director of the practise in Newmilns, had taken "significant steps" to get sober after treatment last year but had relapsed and committed the offence.

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He said she had been to her GP to seek help and that her licence had been revoked in September last year due to her alcoholism.

McFarlane had also spent time at a residential detoxification facility in Irvine where she made good progress, the court heard.

The solicitor added his client had not drunk since and would be able to keep her job at the firm she runs alongside fellow director Andrew Matheson.

Sheriff Higgins deferred sentence until yesterday so a social work report could be prepared, saying he was “concerned about the [alcohol] reading”.

The lawyer, who faced up to a year in prison for the offence, was also to be assessed on her suitability for a restriction of liberty order – which would see her fitted with an electronic tag and having to remain within her home in Ayr every night for a specified period of time.

The Daily Record attempted to contact the solicitors for comment yesterday but an answerphone message said the office was closed due to “unforeseen circumstances”.

The Crown Office said the investigation into the death is ongoing and the family would continue to be kept updated in relation to any significant developments.