A depressed Dunfermline man got drunk then got behind the wheel with the intention of ending his life, a court has heard.
Christopher Godden, who felt “everything was going wrong in his life” after splitting up with his partner, was stopped when police saw him driving erratically.
Godden, 27, Urquhart Crescent, admitted that on November 1, on Halbeath Road, he drove having consumed excess alcohol (96mics). The legal limit is 22mics.
At Dunfermline Sheriff Court, depute fiscal Cheryl Clark said: “He was staggering, slurring his words and officers could smell alcohol on his breath.”
Godden’s solicitor, Selena Mackay, said the offence occurred at a time when “everything was going wrong in his life.”
He had just split up with his partner and was not seeing his children at the time.
She said that, as was stated in a social work report, when her client drove that day “his intention was to commit suicide”.
She told the court that her client had lost his two jobs as a result of the incident and “he knows he has to address the issues he has with alcohol and cannabis”.
Sheriff Craig McSherry imposed a community payback order with 120 hours of unpaid work and disqualified him from driving for 12 months.