A Christmas night out ended in the cells after an Elgin reveller made the “foolish decision” to drive home.
Colin Rose didn’t get far, however, and crashed his car into a bollard just moments into the illegal journey home.
A taxi driver spotted his crashed car and called police, who found him to be almost four times the drink-drive limit, Elgin Sheriff Court was told.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke said the incident happened in the early hours of December 16 last year.
Immediately came clean to police
“Police officers were on mobile parole when they were alerted by a taxi driver to a road traffic collision on Station Road,” she said.
“They attended and noted there was significant damage to the vehicle in question and also to a keep-left bollard.
“The accused was stood next to the driver’s door and stated to police that he was driving under the influence and had crashed his car.”
A breath test at Elgin Police Station gave his reading of 100mcg of alcohol in 100ml of breath, the legal limit being 22mcg.
The 42-year-old admitted a drink-driving charge at the earliest opportunity.
His defence agent Matthew O’Neill said Rose’s walk home took him near his parked vehicle and that’s when he made the fateful decision to drive.
Walk home took him past his car
“He is full of apologies and regrets that he has become involved in something of this nature,” the solicitor added.
“It’s perhaps no surprise given the time of year that he had been out on a sociable evening in the run-up to Christmas.
“He had driven himself into town with the intention of leaving his car in town and collecting it the next day.
“He began his walk home at the end of the night out however that took him nearby to his parked vehicle and he made the foolish decision to attempt to drive it home.
“He didn’t get very far into that endeavour and the incident in question made it clear he should not have tried to do it.”
He said Rose, who had never been in court before and works full time, had been struggling with “ups and downs in life” at the time.
Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov banned Rose, of Milnefield Avenue, Elgin, from the road for 16 months and deemed him suitable to complete a drink-drive rehab course to reduce that ban by 25%.
She also fined him £710.
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