A drink-driver who careered down roads in Kinross-shire while barely conscious has been told it was a miracle he had not killed anyone.
James Brown was drinking from two bottles of wine as he weaved his way down country roads, leaving a string of terrified motorists in his wake.
His act of madness saw him jailed for eight months and banned from driving for eight years after Perth Sheriff Court heard he had three previous convictions for drink-driving and had been banned from the road when the latest incident took place.
Sheriff Michael Fletcher told Brown: “This is your fourth conviction for driving with too much alcohol and on this occasion you were driving while more than four times the limit and in a very stupid and dangerous fashion.
“It is only amazing fortune that you did not cause serious injury to yourself or others on the road. Many of the motorists must have been terrified by what they saw.”
Time and time again the 52-year-old’s vehicle swung into the face of oncoming traffic, straddling the central white line, mounting grass verges and pavements and forcing cars to take evasive action.
Calls were made to Tayside Police who sent units to trace Brown’s A4 Audi Quattro sport estate car.
Witnesses blasted their horns in a bid to rouse the accused and he briefly returned to his own side of the road, only to begin weaving again moments later. One driver had to make an emergency stop to avoid a head-on collision.
Brown’s vehicle finally came to an abrupt halt, with stunned witnesses looking on as he parked it in the centre of the road, straddling both sides.
Fellow motorists approached and found him lying back in the driver’s seat with his eyes closed. Roused from his slumber, Brown struggled to undo his seatbelt, before staggering from the car and collapsing in the road.
Brown, of Perth Road, Milnathort, admitted driving while disqualified and with excess alcohol (145 mics) on the B996 Milnathort to Mawcarse road on July 16. The legal limit is 35 mics.