A boss at V&A Dundee has been banned from the roads after being caught drink-driving at a train station.
Ailsa Suttie was seen to be unsteady on her feet as she tried to get into a vehicle at around 12.30am on November 23.
Police were dispatched to Cupar railway station, where the 59-year-old was found to be more than double the legal limit (58mics/ 22).
Dundee Sheriff Court was told how Suttie was sitting in the driver’s seat of a vehicle and clutching the keys with the ignition still off.
Suttie, of Kirklands Park, Cupar, admitted being the driver and provided a positive alcohol reading.
According to Suttie’s profile on networking site Linkedin, she began working as head of human resources at V&A Dundee in June this year.
‘She made the wrong decision’
Solicitor Julita Blazniak said her client had been on a day out in Edinburgh and had driven to Cupar station with the intention of leaving her car there.
Ms Blazniak said: “She consumed two glasses of red wine and stopped drinking at 4pm.
“Upon her return to the station, she had noticed she left the window in her vehicle open.
“She tried to close it but she couldn’t.
“There was a fault in the vehicle and she walked back home at about 10pm.
“She did her evening routine then remembered about the car window at the station.
“She made the wrong decision to drive (another vehicle) to the train station.
“She fully acknowledges the mistake she has made and has been beating herself up.”
Puzzled sheriff
A puzzled Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith queried: “I am not a forensic scientist or toxicologist but I am struggling to see how she stopped drinking at 4pm and had two glasses, unless they were exceedingly large glasses, how she provided the reading she did hours later.”
Suttie was disqualified from driving for 12 months and fined £530.
Her ban will be reduced if she completes the drink-drive rehabilitation scheme.
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