A concerned stranger tailed a drink driver for 12 miles through Fife before confiscating his car keys at a petrol station.
Garry Glancey thought he was fit to drive at around noon after a drinking session the night before but this was a “gross error of judgement”, Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard.
The 55-year-old of Links Street, Kirkcaldy, admitted that on June 5 he drove from Morrisons supermarket car park, Esplanade, Kirkcaldy to Harbour Drive, Dalgety Bay, having consumed excess alcohol.
His reading was 49 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit being 22 microgrammes.
Depute fiscal Alex Piper said that about noon Glancey was spotted in the supermarket under the influence of alcohol by a witness.
They saw Glancey get into his car and decided to call the police and also to follow him.
He was followed to the BP service station at Dalgety Bay where Glancey stopped his vehicle, got out and asked what that the witness wanted.
The witness told him the police had been contacted and took away Glancey’s keys until officers arrived.
Defence solicitor Sarah Meehan said: “Mr Glancey had consumed alcohol the previous evening.
“He got up in the morning and thought he would be legally fit to drive.
“He now accepts this was a gross error of judgement.”
She said her client expected to lose his job because of the inevitable driving ban and added, “He appreciates he’s only got himself to blame for this.”
Sheriff Chris Shead imposed a community payback order with 45 hours of unpaid work and disqualified Glancey from driving for 16 months.