A Highland Perthshire groundskeeper flipped his car in a drunken crash.
63-year-old William Morton, from Fearnan, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court to admit driving with excess alcohol (29 mics/ 22).
Fiscal depute Stephanie Hendry explained the first offender had been driving a Ford Focus just before 9pm on September 1.
Police received a 999 call about the car being overturned on the A827 near Taymouth Castle and officers attended.
Uninjured Morton identified himself as the driver and failed the breath test.
His solicitor explained Morton had struck a rock after drinking with friends at a pub.
Sheriff Alastair Brown banned him for 12 months and fined him £300, plus a £20 victim surcharge.
The sheriff said: “Mr Morton, the science of this is very clear.
“Any alcohol has a bad effect on your ability to drive.
“Those who drive having been drinking kill people.
“You were quite fortunate you didn’t kill yourself on this occasion.”
Police sting nails delaers
A pair of drug dealers caught with £1.2m worth of cocaine during a police sting in Dundee have been jailed. Richard Spalding, from Dundee and David Pringle were watched making a drug exchange and later caught with the cocaine and cash.
Flying kick
An Arbroath teenager knocked a complete stranger unconscious with a flying kick in the dead of night.
Kristopher Flaherty previously admitted injuring the “innocent bystander” on September 18 last year.
Flaherty, now 20, returned to the dock at Forfar Sheriff Court to be sentenced after background reports were prepared.
Fiscal depute Sam Craib said Flaherty’s father had contacted his son after becoming involved in an altercation at The Central Bar in Arbroath.
Making his way there at around midnight, Flaherty crossed paths with his victim on a footpath near Gravesend.
“The accused has immediately approached, jumping and kicking him to the chest area,” Mr Craib said.
This caused him to fall onto the roadway and he was knocked unconscious when his head struck the ground.
His head wound was glued shut.
Flaherty told police: “I’m sorry, I didn’t know it would lead to that injury.”
His solicitor Nick Whelan said: “There was a phone call made to Mr Flaherty by his father claiming he was going to be attacked by a number of males outside the public house.
“He accepts the complainer in this case was not involved in the altercation with his father.”
Sheriff Derek Reekie placed Flaherty, of Arbroath’s High Street, under supervision for nine months and ordered him to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
£40k benefits con
A Blairgowrie woman illegally claimed £40,000 of unemployment benefits while working at a Dundee jewellery store. Suzanne Gillman swindled taxpayers for seven years while employed as a sales consultant at Murraygate-based Beaverbrooks.
Stalker
A 27-year-old Kirkcaldy man has appeared in court to admit stalking his ex partner.
Nathan Pollard, of Tiree Place, pled guilty to engaging in a course of conduct which caused the woman fear or alarm on August 23 and September 5 this year.
He repeatedly contacted her on WhatsApp, repeatedly attended at her property uninvited and took a photo of her new partner’s vehicle and sent the image to her.
He sent her a message indicating he could see who was in her property and made threats of violence.
He also made threats towards the woman that he would ruin her relationship and contact third parties in an attempt to contact her.
The offence, a contravention of Section 39 (1) of the Criminal Justice and Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010, aggravated by it involving abuse of a former partner.
Defence lawyer, at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court, Danielle Stringer said Pollard works offshore and his sentencing hearing was deferred to January 29, when he returns.
Cocaine in system during accident
Coked-up lorry driver Alan MacDonald, who was 16 times the drug-drive limit during a double fatal road crash, has been spared jail. He was involved in a collision with a Mercedes on the A9 near Dunkeld in October last year, in which two holidaymakers died. He was not responsible for the accident but returned a positive drugs test.
More illegal prison SIMs
Three men have admitted using illicit SIM cards while locked up in HMP Perth.
Aberdeen dockworker Harry Davidson pled guilty to using an unauthorised SIM in his C-Hall cell on September 25 last year.
Davidson was jailed for six years for his involvement in a £1.3m cocaine racket.
Solicitor Gary Foulis explained the 30-year-old is now at liberty and subject to a community payback order.
Sheriff Alastair Brown deferred sentencing until October 25 for background reports.
Inmate Lee Howard was not brought from prison to Perth Sheriff Court and solicitor James Laverty tendered a plea of guilty in his absence.
Howard, 39, admitted that on June 8 this year, he had an unauthorised SIM.
Sheriff Brown imposed a four-month custodial sentence.
40-year-old Craig Sutton wrote into the court to admit possessing an illegal SIM on July 3 this year.
Sheriff Brown deferred sentencing for him to be personally present.
Sutton previously ran a two-year-long drug smuggling operation from three Scottish jails by phone and mail.
Their appearances came a week after a murderer questioned a sheriff over whether it was worth pursuing prisoners through the courts for illegal SIM use.
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