A Highland League footballer has been banned from the roads after being caught drink-driving.
Buckie Thistle player Cohen Ramsay had been out drinking with friends the night before he was pulled over by police in Dingwall.
Officers noticed a smell of alcohol emanating from the “nervous” semi-professional player’s vehicle and conducted a roadside breath test.
Ramsay, 24, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit a single drink-driving charge in relation to the incident on July 23 of last year.
Fiscal depute Karen Poke told the court that it was around 9.30am when a police officer travelling on Greenhill Street in Dingwall noticed Ramsay’s vehicle.
She said: “He had reason to stop the vehicle and spoke to the accused.
‘His football will suffer’
“The officer noted that the accused appeared nervous and there was a smell of alcohol emanating from the vehicle.”
Ramsay failed a roadside breath test and was taken to the police station where subsequent testing revealed he had 38 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath – more than the legal limit of 22 microgrammes.
Solicitor Marc Dickson, for Ramsay, told the court that his client had split from his girlfriend the day before and had been “enticed” out by friends.
He said the “understandably upset” Ramsay accepted that he became “quite drunk throughout the course of the evening” but had stopped drinking around midnight and had felt that he was in a fit state to drive the following morning.
“Clearly, this was an error in judgment,” Mr Dickson told Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald.
The court heard that Ramsay, who also works as a care worker, was committed to training twice a week and needed to travel to Buckie for sessions, as well as playing games in the Highland League throughout the season.
Referencing the inevitable disqualification that would result from the player’s plea, Mr Dickson said: “His football will suffer.”
Sheriff MacDonald fined Ramsay, of Seaforth Place, Maryburgh, £500 and banned him from the roads for 12 months – which could be reduced by three months if he successfully completes a self-funded drink-driver rehabilitation course.
