A teenager has been told his family could have spent Christmas Day “visiting him in a mortuary” after he crashed his car while drunk in the early hours of December 25.
Zann Els was disqualified from driving for 16 months and ordered to complete 140 hours of unpaid work at Aberdeen Sheriff Court yesterday.
Fiscal depute Lynne Macvicor told the court that the 18-year-old had got behind the wheel in the early hours of Christmas morning, while nearly four times the alcohol limit, and drove dangerously on the A96 Inverurie to Blackburn road.
After swerving onto the opposing carriageway in his two-seater smart car, he drove through the Port Elphinstone roundabout at excessive speed and struck a verge.
Els also crossed solid white line road markings and drove along hatchings on the road before crashing his car on Gauchhill Road.
Defence lawyer, Gregor Kelly, said: “It could have been a very different Christmas morning for his family, they could have been visiting him in a mortuary.
“He had been caught up drinking after his shift on Christmas Eve.”
After not being able to get a taxi, Els got behind the wheel and the court heard he showed “remorse” for the decision.
Els, of Castlefield Gardens in Kintore, admitted driving with 80 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of his breath when police tested him – the legal limit is 22.
