A pensioner has been banned from the roads after driving to a supermarket to buy wine while more than four times over the legal limit.
Shirley Goldie had been feeling “maudlin” on April 24 this year and decided to have a drink to cheer herself up.
But when the booze ran out, she climbed into her blue Skoda Fabia and drove less than a mile to her local Tesco to buy more wine.
When she arrived at the store, witnesses thought the 72-year-old had been drinking and phoned the police.
And, when a breath test was carried out, it showed she was almost five times the legal drink-drive limit.
Yesterday, Goldie appeared at Aberdeen Sheriff Court and admitted getting behind the wheel with 104 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22 mcg.
Fiscal depute Laura Begg said the first offender had been spotted at around 5pm in the supermarket car park.
She said: “Police received information that the accused had been driving whilst under the influence of alcohol.
“They subsequently traced the accused in the car park of the locus.
“She provided a positive breath test and was arrested. She told the police she had been drinking earlier that day.”|
Representing the widow, solicitor Gregor Kelly said the incident was an “act of lunacy”.
He said: “She had been feeling somewhat maudlin and started drinking wine earlier in the day. She finished the wine and, in an act of lunacy, decided to drive to Tesco to buy more.”
Mr Kelly said she was “so embarrassed” by what she had done she had offered her resignation at the transport company where she works two days a week.
However, he said her employers held her in such high esteem the boss was willing to pick her up from her home and drive her into work.
Mr Kelly said a disqualification would also affect the pensioner’s social life as she is a keen line dancer and will no longer be able to drive to her classes.
The court heard she had started to attend alcohol abuse counselling.
Sheriff Alison Stirling banned Goldie, of 17 Stornoway Crescent, Aberdeen, from the roads for 20 months and imposed a £600 fine.
This will be reduced by a quarter if she carries out the drink drivers’ rehabilitation scheme.
