A drink-driving teenager who crashed his car in the early hours of Christmas Day and then phoned police to tell them he was lost has been banned from driving.
Callum Stewart marked his 18th birthday on Christmas Eve.
But Elgin Sheriff Court heard the celebrations started to go sour when at 2am the following morning he crashed his Ford Fiesta into a ditch between Lhanbryde and Rothes.
The court was told the apprentice decorator then made an emergency call to the police to say he was lost and needed help.
Officers used his phone to pinpoint his location and arrived on the scene at 2.20am.
Fiscal depute Kevin Corrins said: “Given the severe weather at that time and the remote location from which the call appeared to come, a number of police units were dispatched.
“They found the accused’s car embedded in an embankment.”
Stewart failed a breath test and Mr Corrins said checks also revealed he had no MoT or insurance for the car.
The incident happened on the B9013 Sheriffston-Inchberry road near the junction with the unclassified Clatternbriggs-Orbiston road.
Stewart’s agent, solicitor Debbie Wilson. acknowledged that her client was “very intoxicated” on Christmas Eve, and asked that a criminal justice social work report be carried out.
Sheriff Susan Raeburn agreed to the request and deferred sentence until next month.
Stewart, of 58 Glenesk Road, Lhanbryde, was disqualified from driving in the meantime.
