A Dunfermline teenager was more than four times the limit when he crashed into a set of traffic lights after a drinking session.
Charlie Kay, 18, wrote off the Volkswagen Polo after boozing at The Ballroom sports bar last month.
Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard he had parked the car at the back of Sports Direct and returned to it at around 4:30am the next morning.
Kay, of Dunfermline’s Regulus Street, admitted driving with excess alcohol (98mics/22) on December 10 in the Hospital Hill area.
Procurator fiscal depute Azrah Yousaf said: “There was a call to Police Scotland regarding a blue car crashed into a set of traffic lights and that two males within appeared to be intoxicated.”
The fiscal depute said “extensive front end damage” was noted by police officers and a “strong smell of alcohol” from the car when they opened the door.
Defence lawyer Aime Allan said her client, a first offender, is “extremely embarrassed”.
The solicitor said “On the way home he got in the car and accepts he drunk a lot of alcohol and stupidly got behind the wheel.
“He understands this was a very foolish decision on his part.
“The vehicle crashed and it was a write off”.
Sheriff James MacDonald highlighted that the poor standard of driving and high alcohol reading made it a “significant offence”.
The sheriff adjourned sentencing until February 1 for the production of background reports and disqualified Kay from driving in the meantime.
Handbrake fine
A police officer has been fined £500 after leaving her car parked on a slope with its handbrake off in Perth, causing it to roll downhill and smash into a house. Rachel Hutchison‘s runaway Fiat 500 was spotted gathering speed as it made its way down Juniper Place, across Alder Drive and into the front of the bungalow.
Drink-driver woken in bed
A drink-driver whose car was found crashed in Angus was woken in bed by police at his door.
Mark McQueen abandoned his Hyundai after he careered off the road at Balmachie Road, Carnoustie on a night out on February 23.
McQueen, 27, abandoned the vehicle and got a lift home but the wreckage was found by police.
At Forfar Sheriff Court he admitted driving with excess alcohol (53mics/22).
The retail firm operations director has a previous analogous conviction from 2016.
McQueen, of Strathbeg Place in Dundee, was banned for three years and fined £790.
Defending solicitor Sarah Russo said he had “a couple of pints” in a pub before driving home.
Ms Russo said her client then had a period of time not drinking and “felt fine” before making “the poor decision to get into his vehicle.”
“He did carry on drinking at home as he was worried. He does accept full responsibility for this offence.”
Sleepy crash
A van was left hanging in mid-air after Darren Reynolds fell asleep at the wheel and ploughed into a traffic sign on Burntisland High Street. The 42-year-old’s Vauxhall Astra van ended up stranded when the dislodged sign tore up paving slabs below his vehicle.
Drug-driver’s system error
A Fife chef caught drug driving after taking cocaine “the night prior” has been banned from the road.
Jamie Halliday told Dunfermline Sheriff Court he did not know the class A drug “stayed in the system”.
The 22-year-old admitted driving with excess benzoylecgonine – the main metabolite of cocaine – in his system (79mics/50) in Aberdour Place, Dunfermline, on November 3 2021.
Procurator fiscal depute Azrah Yousaf said Halliday, of the city’s Whirlbut Street, was stopped by police who were concerned by his manner of driving, shortly after 11pm.
They noticed a smell of cannabis as they spoke to Halliday and in a vehicle search, found a small quantity of the drug on a person in the passenger seat.
Halliday provided a drug wipe which returned a positive result and a blood sample was later taken at the police station.
Halliday, representing himself in court, said: “It was a mistake on my part.
“In terms of cocaine use, I did not know it stayed in the system.
“I never took it on the day I was stopped. It was the night prior.
“(It’s) not that I intentionally took it and went out to drive the vehicle”.
Halliday was fined £900 and banned from driving for 12 months.
One-man crimewave
Serial housebreaker Andrew Stobbs, 37, from Kinross was been jailed for two years. The one-man crimewave stole a cash register and 48 wine bottles from the Raj Mahal restaurant, took tools from a garden shed and twice targeted the Kinross 4×4 Centre.
Drunk – but didn’t drive
A Fife man was found in his car at almost six times the drink-drive limit following an argument with his wife.
Allan Tait downed vodka while parked on Strathore Road in Thornton on March 26 last year.
He was found by police officers, who noted he staggered as he exited his car.
Tait’s solicitor said he was under stress due to issues in his personal life.
He said: “He got into his car and stopped to purchase a bottle of vodka.
“He went to the locus and drank from the bottle.
“He knew then he was not in a fit state to drive.”
He said Tait, 54, of Turnberry Drive, Kirkcaldy, has not driven since.
At Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Tait admitted being in charge of a car on March 26 last year while over the limit (401mg/67).
Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith noted that Tait’s reading was at the higher end of the scale but said it was important to note that he had not driven the vehicle.
He banned him from the roads for 12 months and fined him £666.67.
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