Driver put blame on sleeping tablets for strange behaviour
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But when cannabis was found in a tin in the Audi he was driving, Damian Bigus (28) refused to be medically examined or to take a blood test.
And after admitting driving while unfit through drugs, possession of cannabis and refusing to provide blood for analysis, Bigus, of Riverside Road, Alness, found himself slapped with a £1370 fine and a two-year driving ban.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood heard at Inverness Sheriff Court how Bigus was spotted by a fellow motorist on at around 10.50am on September 4 last year driving erratically.
A mobile police patrol stopped him near Drummond Farm when he turned off the A9 onto to the B817 towards Evanton.
Depute fiscal Fiona Murray said Bigus was first seen on an unclassified road between Invergordon and Tomich.
She said: “His red Audi was repeatedly driving left into the verge and swerving back and when he reached the junction to the A9 travelling south he continued to drift towards the verge and straddled the centre line.”
When stopped by police as he turned off towards Evanton, “he was slurring his words, staggering and appeared drowsy”, the fiscal said.A roadside breath test proved negative but cannabis was found with a pipe inside his vehicle. Later he refused to provide a specimen of blood. The fiscal said at one stage after being stopped at the roadside, Bigus fell into the open door of the police car.
She said: “He told police he had taken two sleeping tablets at 5am and 7am that morning in an unsuccessful attempt to get to sleep. He declined to be medically examined and refused a blood test.”
The fiscal said the cannabis recovered from the tin in the vehicle weighed 16.1 grammes and had a street value of £25.
Sheriff Fleetwood fined him a total of £1370 and banned him from driving for two years.
