Two men have been banned from the road after they admitted drink-driving charges at Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday.
Kinloss man David Elliott had been drinking the night before he was stopped by police at lunchtime on December 27 last year, and a breath-test showed he was nearly four times the limit.
The 54-year-old, of 13 Central Avenue, gave a reading of 78 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22mcg.
Defence agent Matthew O’Neill told the court: “My client accepts that he consumed a significant amount of alcohol the evening prior to the incident, but by lunchtime the next day he thought the effects were beginning to wear off.
“He fully regrets that decision.”
Elliott was banned from the roads for 18 months, and Sheriff Peter Grant-Hutchison also fined him £600.
Brian Lowrie faced a similar fate for refusing to give a breath sample after his car crashed off Muirton Road in Lossiemouth earlier this month.
Lowrie, of Ardivot House, Lossiemouth failed on two occasions to comply with police officers’ requests for a breath-test.
The court heard that a witness found the 53-year-old’s vehicle by Muirton Road in Lossiemouth at 11pm on Sunday, March 1.
It had left the road and collided with a fence.
Depute fiscal Kevin Corrins told the court that when police attended the scene they noticed a “strong smell of alcohol” coming from Lowrie, who was slurring his speech.
He said: “He failed to provide two specimens of breath without giving any particular reason.”
Representing Lowrie, solicitor Simon Booker-Millburn said his client did not wish to challenge officers’ claims he was driving the vehicle while drunk.
After banning Lowrie from driving for a period of 18 months, Sheriff Grant-Hutchison imposed a £200 fine.
