A company director who got behind the wheel of his car, while over the drink-drive limit, to go to the aid of his sick wife, has been banned from the roads.
Police stopped James Rogerson while he was driving home on the B9001 Inverurie to Rothienorman road on November 10 last year.
After pulling him over, officers said they could smell alcohol on his breath. And, when asked to carry out a roadside test they discovered Rogerson was almost three times over the drink-drive limit.
Yesterday, the 59-year-old appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted getting behind the wheel with 61 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22mcg.
Fiscal depute Jamie Dunbar stated that the time of the offence was around 4pm, that it was light and the road surfaces were wet.
He said that, when the results of the breath test came back, Rogerson, who had been driving a grey Range Rover Vogue, told officers he did not understand how he had alcohol in his system.
Representing the first offender yesterday, solicitor Christopher Maitland declared his client was the main carer for his wife who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis.
He said he had decided to go to the pub after work that day as he knew there was a “home help” looking after her.
Mr Maitland added that, shortly after he had taken a drink, he received a phone call from his wife, telling him she had started to suffer from muscle spasms.
As a result, he decided to drive home, concerned this might have resulted in her being admitted to hospital.
Mr Maitland said Rogerson, of Legatsden House, Pitcaple, in Inverurie, would suffer, as a consequence of the loss of his licence, because he would be unable to transport his wife to hospital when required.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge disqualified Rogerson from driving for a year, but allowed him to take part in the Drink Drivers’ Rehabilitation Course which would allow him to reduce that period.
He was also fined £380.
