News / Social worker keeps his licence and his job
A SHETLAND-based social worker who fell foul of Norwegian sailors’ “anchor drams” ended up nearly losing his driving licence and his job when he appeared at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday.
The court heard that 45 year old Narrinder Hundal, of 20 Sundhamar, Lerwick, was more than twice the alcohol limit when approached by police in the early hours of Saturday 7 July as he sat in his Nissan Micra outside Thulecraft on Commercial Street.
Hundal admitted being over the limit, as well as having no tax or MOT, but denied being drunk in charge of the vehicle, saying he had no intention of driving.
He told the court he had met four Norwegian sailors in The Lounge bar that night and returned to their catamaran in Lerwick harbour to continue drinking.
He said he returned to his nearby car at around 5am to find CDs and planned to head straight back to the boat, stay the night on board and sail with his new friends to Scalloway the following day.
PC Michael Murphy told the court the car engine was running and Hundal had been looking at his mobile phone when he and his colleague PC Andrew Card opened the door.
Murphy said Hundal had initially claimed he was using his phone to look for a taxi and then said he was searching for CDs.
Hundal told the court he could not remember mentioning a taxi to the police and did not believe the engine had been running.
He also claimed that he had begged the police to return him to the boat so the Norwegian sailors could verify his story, and even when he asked them to follow it up during the weekend he spent in the cells they failed to do so.
He added that he had held a clean driving licence for 25 years which was essential for his job as a rehabilitation officer for the visually impaired, helping people read braille when their eyesight went.
He insisted: “I had no intention of driving in a state of inebriation. I think drink driving is an abhorrent offence. A drink driver as such is a person in charge of a half tonne bullet. It’s something I have always felt strongly about.”
Summing up, defence agent Tommy Allan said he had “some experience of Norwegian anchor drams, as they are called, and they are fairly large”.
He asked the court to believe Hundal did not intend to drive his car that morning, but procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said his claims were “blatantly stupid”.
Sheriff Philip Mann said he did not find Hundal’s evidence credible and found him guilty.
However he held back from banning him so he could keep his job helping people with bad eyesight, a post it had taken the council four years to fill before Hundal arrived early this year.
Instead he placed 10 penalty points on his licence and fined him a total of £800.
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