A drink-driver crashed his van into a parked car in Aberdeen after swigging from a bottle of Jack Daniels.
Grzegorz Plichta stopped off at Tesco after work to buy a bottle of bourbon, then started drinking it after parking up near his home.
The 32-year-old then decided to move his van slightly closer to his address and collided with a parked car in the process.
Plichta promptly panicked and drove off to a nearby street where he was found by police.
‘He accepts now he should never have driven’
Fiscal depute Kirsty Martin told Aberdeen Sheriff Court Plichta was driving along Walker Road in Aberdeen around 4.50pm on December 19 in his silver Peugeot van when the incident happened.
She said witnesses had cause to contact the police who then traced Plichta and the van nearby on Grampian Lane.
Officers spoke to Plichta, who confirmed he had been driving the van and was arrested after failing a breath test.
Plichta, of Walker Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to driving with 95 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath.
The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.
Defence agent Debbie Ginniver handed the sheriff a letter from her client.
‘Impulsive and foolish decision’
She said Plichta had been experiencing a number of difficulties in his personal life at the time and had bought a bottle of Jack Daniels on his way home from work.
She said: “I understand he drove home to Walker Road, parked up his van and began to consume from the bottle of Jack Daniels.
“He thereafter went to move the vehicle closer to his address.
“At the time, he didn’t think much of the decision as he wasn’t moving it far.
“He accepts now he should never have driven.
“While driving along Walker Road, he did bump into another car which was parked, at which stage he panicked and drove the short distance to Grampian Lane.
“There he picked up the bottle of Jack Daniels again and continued to consume alcohol.”
Ms Ginniver described it as an “entirely impulsive and foolish decision” which her client “deeply regrets”.
She told the court he had no previous conviction and would likely lose his job as a result of the case.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge fined him £600 and banned him from driving for a year.
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