A member of the Macdonald-Haig poppy family who admitted drink driving on the same stretch of road he caused a fatal crash 12 years ago narrowly avoided jail yesterday.
Alexander Macdonald-Haig was caught driving at over twice the legal limit – and without a licence – on the A82 Loch Ness-side road.
The tree surgeon had already served a three-year prison sentence for killing his best friend in an alcohol-fuelled crash in 2003.
Yesterday, the 33-year-old appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to be banned from the road for five years, fined £2,000 and given 300 hours unpaid work – the maximum non-custodial sentence.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson told Macdonald Haig she was “narrowly persuaded” not to send him to jail.
MacDonald-Haig had been imprisoned for three years in 2004 after crashing his Land Rover on the A82 Inverness to Drumnadrochit road, resulting in the death of 18-year-old apprentice Ruraidh Potts.
MacDonald-Haig, now of Wellesborune, Milton, Drumnadrochit, had three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system on December 3, 2003. He was jailed and ordered to resit his driving test.
But last month, he admitted not resitting the extended test and pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified.
He also admitted driving with 48mg of alcohol in his breath, over twice the legal limit on the A82 at Lochend, some six miles from Inverness on September 24, 2015.
The court was told that police attended at a collision involving Macdonald Haig and smelled alcohol off his breath.
Defence lawyer Rory Gowans said: “Alcohol was still in his system from the night before. There were health concerns about his step-daughter and he and his partner sat up for most of the night.
“He shouldn’t have driven the morning after and he is perfectly aware of how foolish and dangerous this was. He has let himself and his family down. If anyone should have been aware of that, then he should have.
“The experience and trauma of what happened years ago has been with him ever since. He knows he will be banned but he will employ a driver for his business. He is also willing to drop everything and do as many hours of unpaid work to avoid going back to jail.”
