An Aberdeen man has been banned from the roads after he was caught three times above the drink-drive limit.
Finlay Stuart, who lives in the city’s Abbey Square, admitted driving while under the influence after a night of heavy drinking last month.
The 48-year-old appeared at Aberdeen sheriff court yesterday, where he pleaded guilty to the offence.
The court heard Stuart had been pulled over by police while driving on Cranford Road at about 2.15pm, after they received information he may have been drunk behind the wheel.
Officers carried out a roadside breath test which Stuart failed and subsequently took a sample of his breath back at a nearby police station.
The court heard Stuart had 66 microgrammes of alcohol in 100millilitres of breath at the time. The legal limit is 22mcg.
Defence agent, Stuart Murray, told the court his client had drunk nearly a full bottle of bourbon the night before the offence, but had assumed the booze would have left his system by the following afternoon.
Mr Murray added Stuart had been going through a difficult time at work and had signed off work for a few months due to stress.
He said Stuart felt “deeply embarrassed” about his actions and had never done anything of this nature before.
Mr Murray urged the court to consider ordering Stuart to complete unpaid work as an alternative to paying a fine because he was currently relying on sick pay as his only source of income.
Sheriff Malcolm Garden disqualified Stuart from driving for 15 months and imposed 50 hours of unpaid work in three months.
The sheriff also ordered him to complete the drink-driver rehabilitation programme, which would reduce his ban to a year.
He said: “You were three times the limit and that’s something the court has to take quite seriously.
“But I’m prepared to listen to everything that’s been said on your behalf and take into account this was drinking the night before, not just drinking and then jumping straight into a car.”
