Beauly motorist six times the drink-drive limit lands £1000 fine and 20-month ban
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A sheriff was shocked when she was told a 59-year-old semi-retired man was over six times the legal drink driving limit when police breathalysed him.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that the procedure was carried out two hours after father-of-three Gordon MacGregor had been confronted by another motorist.
She believed that MacGregor had made contact with her car as he drove into the Spar shop car park in Ardersier on February 13 this year.
Fiscal depute Niall Macdonald said: "She smelt alcohol off his breath but he denied he had been drinking.
"The police were called and recovered an empty bottle of vodka which he had placed in a bin before driving off.
"When police traced him, he replied 'guilty as charged,'" Mr Macdonald added, before asking for the vehicle to be confiscated..
MacGregor, of Breakachy Road, Beauly admitted drink-driving. His solicitor Clare Russell said: "Clearly by the reading before the court, any explanation that he thought he was okay to drive doesn't make sense.
"He had gone shopping for his father and the shop was just a short walk away. Se he didn't have to take the car. He is diagnosed as bi-polar and suffers from poor mental health.
"He is a first offender and has taken steps to address his alcohol consumption. At the end of this year he and his wife intend to re-locate to New Zealand and he intends giving his car, valued at £5000, to his stepson."
Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald refused Mr Macdonald's request to forfeit the car. But she fined MacGregor £1000 and banned him from driving for 20 months.
She also told him: "It is a worryingly excessively high reading."
