A teenager who crashed his new car into a tree just hours after buying it was already banned from the road for drink-driving.
Caleb Stewart was just three months into his disqualification when he decided to buy a new car and ended up crashing it – once again while over the drink-drive limit.
Banff Sheriff Court heard how the 19-year-old is already banned because he drunkenly rode his motorbike through Aberchirder with a passenger on the back
Fiscal depute Kirsty Martin told the court that the roads were wet and it was dark when Stewart crashed his car at 2.45am on the B9025 Turriff-to-Aberchirder road near Kirklands House on October 12 last year.
Told lies to police
“A witness was travelling from Turriff to Huntly when she saw a dark-coloured vehicle which had left the road and collided with a tree,” she said.
“She noticed a male a short distance from the car and contacted police to report the incident, providing a description of the man too.
“Police attended and en route they saw the accused, who matched the description given to them, walking towards Aberchirder.
“He told officers he had received a call from a friend and stated that the friend had been involved in a collision. He said he had started to walk to see him before changing his mind and walking back home.”
But when officers searched him they found a new keeper slip for the car which had just crashed.
“At that time it was noted there was a smell of alcohol emanating from the accused and they had reason to believe he had been driving the vehicle,” the fiscal said.
A breathalyser test at Fraserburgh Police Station showed he had 27 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath, the legal limit being 22.
And when police spoke to the previous owner of the vehicle he confirmed he had swapped cars with Stewart just a few hours before the crash.
Stewart admitted charges of driving while disqualified and drink-driving.
‘Lacked role models’
Defence agent Stuart Flowerdew said Stewart had bought that car to do it up while he was off the road and didn’t originally intend to drive it.
“It was being done up at his friend’s house and it would have remained there had there not been a fall out with this friend,” he said.
The solicitor added that the youngster struggled with “impulsive behaviour”, and had a “lack of role models growing up”, but “seemed to be going in the right direction now”.
Sheriff Robert McDonald warned Stewart much more offending on top of his “bad record” could see him send to custody if there was a “next time”.
Stewart, of Southview Terrace, Aberchirder, was banned from driving for a further three years, given a one-year supervision order and a 140-day curfew.
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