Over legal limit

A MAN who drove his workmates home from a Christmas party while he was over the legal alcohol limit had sentence deferred at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Monday.

Thirty nine year old Moreno Dalfonso, of Torogay Street, Glasgow was caught by police on Lerwick’s Holmsgarth Road shortly after 2am on Sunday 15 December last year.

He was found to have 44 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said Dalfonso had cooperated with police procedures, but it had subsequently taken “some time” to get him to appear in court. He only appeared on Monday “under compulsion”, having been taken into custody on Friday.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said Dalfonso felt responsible for getting his colleagues home after their night out to ensure they attended work the following morning.

His client accepted it was a “serious misjudgement” which had resulted in the loss of his job. Dalfonso had subsequently been through a “traumatic” relationship breakdown and suffered a mental breakdown.

Allan said his client also suffered from anxiety, another factor explaining why it had taken until now for him to appear in court.

Sheriff Philip Mann deferred sentence until 2 October due to the absence of Dalfonso’s driving licence and imposed an interim disqualification.

He said that while the count was “not a great excess over the statutory limit”, Dalfonso did not have a good track record.

Meanwhile a teenager who denied charges of assaulting his partner and behaving in a threatening or abusive manner has been remanded in custody.

Eighteen year old Andrew Murray, of Sandveien, Lerwick, is accused of assaulting the woman by seizing her by the hair, pulling her to the ground and repeatedly punching and kicking her on the head to her injury at an address at Sandveien on Saturday.

He is also accused of causing a disturbance by shouting, swearing and repeatedly banging on doors and windows at the same location that day.

Sheriff Mann refused Murray’s application for bail “with some regret”, and the matter is due to go straight to trial on 1 October.