A three-time Angus drink-driver narrowly escaped jail.
Mark Fyfe was twice the limit when police caught him behind the wheel in Brechin after being tipped off by his partner that he had driven off under the influence.
Appearing at Forfar sheriff court on Thursday, 28-year-old Fyfe was warned by Sheriff Edward Savage that the background of similar offences in 2006 and 2009 had taken him to the brink of custody.
Fyfe, of Poet’s Place, Brechin, admitted driving with excess alcohol on April 28, with a count of 71 microgrammes, just over double the drink-drive limit.
Depute fiscal Hannah Kennedy said after being advised Fyfe was on the road, traffic officers soon traced him.
“They stopped the car, he was slurring his words, and when asked if he had been drinking told officers that he had had ‘a couple of nips’ at lunchtime,” the fiscal said.
Defence agent Nick Markowski told the court Fyfe had been working as a self-employed drystane dyker prior to the offence.
“He feels terrible and can’t believe how stupid he has been,” said the agent.
“The question is clearly whether there is an alternative to imprisonment.
“I have explained to Mr Fyfe that if he is not imprisoned today then any further drink driving offence would almost certainly lead to custody,” Mr Markowski said.
“He advises me that he had been drinking on the Saturday and then had visited his grandfather where drink was taken, house nips which were larger than usual.”
Sheriff Savage said: “This is the third conviction for drink driving in a fairly short period of time in the great scheme of things. You are fortunate today that I am not going to send you to prison, which I would have been quite entitled to do.”
He imposed an 18-month Community Payback Order including 225 hours of unpaid work.
Sheriff Savage added that despite Fyfe’s guilty plea he was not prepared to discount the period of disqualification and banned him from driving for 10 years.