A motorist was so drunk he drove the wrong way down Fraserburgh’s main street.
Pawel Ignatiuk was four times the limit when he was stopped by police, after being spotted driving in the wrong direction along Broad Street on November 16 last year.
Yesterday the 31-year-old factory worker appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court, where he admitted the drink-driving charge.
The court heard Ignatiuk had been on his way home from a party with his girlfriend when he was spotted driving the wrong way up the street in a silver Renault Megane.
Two witnesses saw him swerve to avoid a taxi, and then followed him to St Andrew’s Drive and reported him to the police.
When officers approached him, the hood of the car was still warm and they could smell alcohol. The keys were also in the ignition.
But the court heard that Ignatiuk, of 12 King’s Court, Aberdeen, had told officers: “I was not driving, the car was not moving.”
A breath test later showed he had 89 microgrammes of alcohol in 100millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22mcg.
Defence agent Ian Jane told Sheriff Philip Mann that his client accepted he had no reason to be driving while under the influence.
“He has been in the United Kingdom for seven years and has had a full employment history in that time,” he added.
“He understands he should not have been driving on the night in question. His girlfriend had indicated that she wanted to go home and that he could stay overnight, and he regretfully made the decision to drive.”
Sheriff Mann told Ignatiuk he knew “very well the dangers” of drink-driving, and banned him for 16 months.
