News / Sympathy for the driver
A MAN has been banned and fined after driving his car a few yards off the NorthLink ferry in Lerwick the morning after drinking alcohol.
At Lerwick Sheriff Court on Thursday, Douglas Leslie, of Bayview, Collafirth, Voe, admitted driving while just over the alcohol limit at the town’s Holmsgarth ferry terminal on 26 June.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said police were alerted after speaking to the 43 year old about another matter as he drove off the ferry.
Smelling alcohol, he was breathalysed and taken to Lerwick police station where he was found to be slightly over the limit.
He would have been legal to drive before the Scottish alcohol limit was reduced in December.
Defence agent Tommy Allan explained that his client had been drinking the day before but had stopped when he thought he would still be fit to drive the next day.
However his decision to drive his vehicle off the ferry and leave it in the car park and come back later turned out to be a wrong one.
Sheriff Philip Mann said it was difficult not to feel “a degree of sympathy” for Leslie, before disqualifying him from driving for 12 months and fining him £450.
The ban can be reduced by three months of Leslie completes a drink drivers rehabilitation course.
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