An 18-year-old has been locked up after being convicted of drink driving for the FIFTH time.
Billy Joe Fraser was almost five-times the alcohol limit when police stopped his vehicle in Harbour Road in Inverness last month.
Sending him to a Young Offender’s Institution for six months, Sheriff Gary Aitken warned: “If you don’t alter your attitude to alcohol and cars, you are going to kill yourself or more likely kill someone else, which would be a real tragedy.”
Fraser had 113mcgs of alcohol in his system when he was pulled over on April 11.
It is not Fraser’s first time behind bars – in April last year he was sentenced to nine months detention for dangerous driving after overturning his car and seriously injuring two teenage girls.
Car careered through a fence
On that occasion, the court was told he was more than twice the legal drink-drive limit when breathalysed in hospital after the crash.
He lost control of his Renault Laguna on a sharp bend outside Nairn, near Little Kildrummie, and careered through a fence and 20 feet down an embankment.
His two passengers, girls aged 17 and 14, suffered fractured vertebrae and ribs.
Defence solicitor Rory Gowans told Inverness Sheriff Court: “When he drinks to excess he makes poor decisions.”
Sheriff Aitken expressed surprise at discovering this was yet another conviction for drink-driving.
He said: “To have racked up four drink-drive convictions in a two-year period is unusual and the reading is very high.”
Fraser admitted the charge and was also banned from driving for 34 months.
‘A complete disregard for the safety of road users’
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Drink Driving said it was clear Fraser has “no respect for the law”.
He said: “Drink driving was for many years been considered a problem caused by older drivers. In recent years though, figures from the Department of Transport have shown an alarming increase in the instances of younger drivers falling foul of the drink-drive laws.
“This is however an extreme case involving a young man who seems to have no respect for the law.
“To be over the limit once is bad enough, twice might be classed as a serious mistake, any more than that shows a complete disregard for the safety of himself and other road users.
“To see he has also been convicted of causing serious injury by dangerous driving further magnifies his disregard for the road traffic laws.”
