Site manager near four times the limit
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And the blunder will have a major knock-on impact for the man.
Fiachra O’Connor, of Gordon Terrace in Invergordon, drove home from a local pub while nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit.
The 33-year-old site manager was disqualified from driving for a year and fined £600 when he appeared at Tain Sheriff Court on Monday.
O’Connor admitted committing the offence on December 15 last year at the town’s Bank Street, High Street and Albany Road.
Tain Sheriff Court heard police came across O’Connor at 1.35am on the day in question.
Tests taken at 2.57am showed him to have 84 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The limit is 22.
Roderick Urquhart, prosecuting, said: “He had forgotten to put his lights on and was stopped by police. He drove the car from a pub car park through a variety of residential streets to his home.”
Defence agent Ken Ferguson said his client had gone to the pub around 10.30pm intending to have a drink and then walk home.
Mr Ferguson told the Court: “He stayed for longer than intended and did not leave the pub until closing time by which time he had consumed more alcohol.”
He went on: “He made the error of judgement that he would take the car back to the house – a decision he regrets.”
The court was further told that O’Connor typically drives around 20,000 miles a year on business.
Speaking in mitigation, Mr Ferguson said that the loss of his licence would inevitably make it difficult for O’Connor to carry out his employment obligations.
Mr Ferguson urged Sheriff Chris Dickson to take as lenient a view as possible as to the length of the disqualification in light of this fact.
Sheriff Dickson agreed that O’Connor could get a three-month discount on the driving ban if he successfully completed a drink-drive rehabilitation course.
