A morning-after drink-driver has been banned from the road for 16 months.
Storeman Neil Jolly admitted the offence when he appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court yesterday.
The 41-year-old had been driving to work on August 18 last year, having spent the previous evening drinking with friends.
Police received a tip-off that he was still under the influence of alcohol.
Fiscal Depute Pauline Oakley told the court that Jolly, whose address was given in court papers as 13 Cairnfield Circle, Aberdeen, was spotted by officers driving his Nissan Micra in Peterhead’s Damhead Way around 7.50am.
Jolly had stayed over at a friend’s house before getting behind the wheel.
Officers found that he had 80 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit at the time was 35, but was lowered to 22mcg on December 5 last year.
Sheriff Philip Mann disqualified him from driving for 16 months and fined him £500.
Jolly’s agent, solicitor Leonard Burkinshaw, told the sheriff that his client thought he had “slept off” the effects of the alcohol before getting into the vehicle.
“It was the morning after the night before, effectively,” he said.
“Mr Jolly had been out with friends the night before, and he had spent the night at the friends’ home. He thought he had slept it off. This was obviously not the case.
“He totally misjudged the situation. He is not a man that goes out breaking the law – it was a mistake.”
