A drink-driver led police on a deadly high-speed chase along a busy road during icy conditions.
Vaidotas Zakarauskas caused other motorists to swerve to avoid a head-on crash as he sped away from officers along the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road, between Forres and Elgin.
The offence took place on November 25, following several days of sub-zero temperatures in the region.
Yesterday, when the 32-year-old at Elgin Sheriff Court, fiscal Alex Swain said ice and snow had built up on the trunk route at the time.
And she explained how Zakarauskas had first caught officers’ attention as they watched him stumble from Forres’s Newmarket Bar and into his black Renault Clio.
Miss Swain said: “They saw him enter the car at 11.10pm, and followed him along Forres’s High Street and Victoria Road where they saw him accelerate to 50mph in a 30mph zone.
“As he turned onto the A96, towards Forres Enterprise Park, the accused was clearly aware that the police were behind him.”
The court heard that, as officers activated their blue lights and siren, Zakarauskas struggled to navigate a roundabout due to the “high speed” he was travelling at.
The fiscal added: “The temperature had been about zero for a few days and snow and ice were lying on the ground along with a large amount of surface water.
“He overtook a car in the face of oncoming traffic, and police reduced their speed out of concern for other road users but later tracked him down at home.”
The accused, whose address was given as Chivas Brothers Ltd, Glenburgie Cottages near Forres, later admitted driving with 44 microgrammes of alcohol per 100mililitres of breath – double the legal limit of 22mcg.
He also pleaded guilty to driving at excessive speed in bad weather conditions, repeatedly driving on the opposing carriageway, overtaking a vehicle by driving in the path of oncoming traffic, turning across the opposing carriageway when it was unsafe to do so and “causing other road users to take evasive action to avoid a collision”.
His lawyer Matthew O’Neill, stressed that his client was a first offender and Sheriff Chris Dickson agreed to defer sentencing until January 18 for background reports.
