A furniture repairman was caught driving while more than five times the legal alcohol limit at 3am in Aberdeen.
Repeat drink-driver Petre Fintoiu was spotted by cops in the early hours driving on Mounthooly Way and King’s Crescent and “fully” mounting the kerb.
And when officers stopped him they found the 37-year-old more than five times the legal booze limit.
The court heard Fintoiu had been drinking after receiving some upsetting news, but could not explain why he then got behind the wheel of the car.
Fiscal depute Emma Petersen told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the incident happened shortly after 3am on November 1 2021.
Accused branded incident ‘stupid mistake’
She said: “Police observed the accused’s vehicle being driven in a manner which caused them to have concerns. It had fully mounted a kerb.
“The vehicle was stopped and the accused found to be the driver and sole occupant.”
Officers detected a “strong smell of alcohol” from within the vehicle and Fintoiu was taken to Kittybrewster station where his breath test gave a reading well in excess of the alcohol limit.
‘It’s a very high reading’
Fintoiu, of University Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to driving with 117 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.
Defence agent Michael Burnett said: “He had been informed by a former partner that, unbeknown to him, she had suffered a miscarriage at an earlier point. He became upset and began drinking.
“He can’t explain to me fully why he then got behind the wheel, describing it as a ‘stupid mistake’.
“He co-operated fully with police at the time and pled guilty at an early stage.
“It has to be accepted it’s a very high reading.”
Sheriff Ian Duguid told Fintoiu: “It’s still not clear to me why you were driving at 3am, but the more important feature is that you were driving when the level of alcohol in your body was five times the legal limit.
“The consequence of that is that the penalties have to be higher than normal because that is a significant aggravating factor, similarly, the fact you have committed a similar offence before.”
Sheriff Duguid fined him £520 and banned him from driving for three-and-a-half years.
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