A train conductor who was more than three times the legal alcohol limit while responsible for passengers at Dundee station has been fined £1,000.
Simon Stansfield (45), of Scott Street, Dundee, was told by Sheriff Davidson that his actions had placed the public at risk when he had turned up for duty on November 19.
Stansfield, who has since resigned from his post and sought alcohol counselling, declined to comment as he left court on Tuesday.
He had admitted that on November 19 at Dundee Railway Station, being a person who works on a transport system and who controlled the movement of a vehicle or in a maintenance capacity or as a supervisor of persons in a maintenance capacity, he worked on the system with excess alcohol (120 mics).
The court heard he had been left on the platform when the 16.38 Dundee-Inverurie service left, and that the train had to be recalled from Carnoustie when this was discovered.
An agent for Stansfield said the train had arrived in Dundee station where the existing conductor had got off, leaving the doors open for Stansfield to begin his shift.
Stansfield began checking the train doors for departure and stepped on to the platform to check the hazard lights were off allowing the train to leave.
As he started to walk along the platform the doors closed and the train started to pull away. As the train departed Stansfield approached the station supervisor and told him what happened.
The supervisor smelled alcohol on his breath and British Transport Police were contacted and Stansfield breathalysed. He told police that he had last had a drink at 10am that day.
Sheriff Richard Davidson told Stansfield: ”I still don’t understand how you got left on the platform, but I suspect that will be lost in the mists of time.
”The public have to be content that they can get on a train and it will be operated safely and that the conductor must be compus mentus.”