A drink-driver who got behind the wheel after a party and crashed into a tree, seriously injuring his girlfriend, has been spared jail.
Luke Macrae had drunk eight bottles of beer at a party but decided to ignore his girlfriend Holly Dalgetty’s warning and started to drive home.
Miss Dalgetty also got in the car, but about a mile-and-a-half later, Macrae clipped a kerb, sending his car careering into a tree in the middle of a roundabout.
Witnesses said the car was “literally flying” before it smashed into the tree.
Miss Dalgaetty suffered two broken vertebrae, abdominal injuries and a flare up on an old fractured ankle injury as a result of the crash on December 16 last year on the A862 between Conon Bridge and Maryburgh.
Macrae, 26, of Strathvaich, Garve, previously admitted driving while twice the legal limit, driving dangerously and behaving aggressively towards paramedics.
At Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday, he was banned from driving for three years and ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work. He was also placed on a two-year supervision order.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson heard that although Miss Dalgetty had initially stood by her boyfriend, they had broken up after he admitted the offence last month.
Defence lawyer Graham Mann said: “It has been a stressful time for both of them. She has had a great deal of pain to suffer and there is genuine remorse by my client who has been prescribed medication for anxiety and depression as a result of this.”
Mr Mann successfully persuaded the court not to jail 26-year-old Macrae of Strathvaich, Garve.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart told the court that paramedics who were driving past in their ambulance stopped and found Ms Dalgetty lying on the road and Macrae crying beside her.
Mr Urquhart said: “They were at a party and Ms Dalgetty, who had thought her boyfriend had gone to the toilet, was told that he was sitting in his car with the engine running.
“She went out and told him not to drive. He told her to get into the car, which she did and he then drove off.
“He drove at speed through a chicane on the road and a witness saw the car “twitch” with Miss Dalgetty repeatedly telling him not to drive.”
He said other motorists saw the car emerge onto the roundabout from their right at over 50mph.
“The passenger in the other car said that she saw the car literally flying, having apparently struck the kerb and lost contact with the ground before impacting on a tree in the middle of the roundabout.”
Miss Dalgetty spent three days in hospital.
