News / Disqualification and forfeiture of £10,000 car for driver who was six times over alcohol limit
A MAN from Lerwick who drove to the town’s Tesco supermarket while nearly six times the alcohol limit has been banned from the road for two years and had his car worth £10,000 taken by the authorities.
Andrew Georgeson, of Lower Sound, previously pleaded guilty at Lerwick Sheriff Court to driving with 131 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath at Tesco and elsewhere in Lerwick on 30 March.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court on Wednesday that a “message of deterrent” had to be sent out on an issue he said was a problem in Shetland.
The court previously heard that the 57 year old had been seen getting out of a car at the supermarket by a concerned member of the public, with police tracing him back to his home less than one mile away.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said his client recognised that he had a problem with alcohol and had sought help with battling the issue.
He said that Georgeson had been drinking on a daily basis and “didn’t really appreciate how much alcohol was in his system”.
Allan said his client was “not badly off” after retiring with a comfortable pension and savings and had been spending his time alone with drink.
At Georgeson’s last court hearing in March, Mackenzie requested the forfeiture of the car, which had been bought for around £20,000 a few years ago.
The 57 year old had planned to sell the vehicle to pay off any fine which would have resulted from the case, Allan said.
However, Mackenzie felt that the forfeiture of the £10,000-valued car was not “disproportionate” to Georgeson’s financial situation and should go ahead.
He added that, alongside punishment, “public denunciation and deterrence” were major reasons behind sentencing in court.
The fiscal, who described Georgeson as a “functioning alcoholic”, said the public needed to know that “if you drink and drive, there is a real risk that not only will you lose your licence, but you will lose your vehicle”.
He said the message needed to be sent out in a jurisdiction with a “problem” for high drink-driving counts.
Sheriff Philip Mann ruled that forfeiture of the car was “amply justified” because of the alcohol count, but he did not impose a fine because of the high value of the car.
Georgeson was told that he could reduce his driving ban by six months if he completes a drink-driver rehab course.
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