A driver was caught drunk in his broken down van on an A9 slip road, Tain Sheriff Court has heard.
Euan Buchan’s vehicle smelled of alcohol and he was confused with slurred speech.
His van was stopped half on a grass verge and half on a slip road, with no lights on and the handbrake down.
Buchan, 35, appeared at Tain Sheriff Court to admit a single charge of being drunk in charge of a vehicle on the A9 near to Hartfield Road, Tain, on April 1 of last year.
Van was in a ‘dangerous location’ on A9 slip road
Fiscal depute Adelle Gray told the court that it was just after midnight on April 1 of this year when police on patrol spotted Buchan’s car in a “dangerous location”.
She said: “They observed the now accused to be lying across the seat with his head towards the passenger side door.
The police knocked on the window but received “no response”.
Upon opening the driver and passenger side doors there was a strong smell of alcohol, Ms Gray said.
The officers noted that the handbrake was down and the vehicle appeared to still be in gear.
Buchan himself appeared “confused”, his speech was “slurred” and he was “unable to answer basic questions about his identity”, the court was told.
More than triple the drink-drive limit
His presentation prompted a roadside breath alcohol test, which he failed.
A further test at Burnett Road Police Station revealed his breath alcohol level to be 73 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath – more than three times the legal limit of 22 microgrammes.
Solicitor Rory Gowans, for Buchan, told the court his client had been working in the area when his vehicle had developed a defect.
After learning that he would not be able to get it back on the road immediately he had decided to stay in the vehicle.
Mr Gowans said: “Because he was next door to Asda, he decided to buy himself some alcohol.”
Handing down 10 penalty points and a £420 fine, Sheriff Neil Wilson told Buchan, of Clifton Road, Aberdeen: “I suspect you know full well you did a foolish thing.”
