A 72-year-old first offender has been banned from driving for a year after drinking too much at a golf club.
Charles Mackay was pulled over after being spotted driving his white Suzuki Vitarra erratically on Kingsway West and Kings Cross Road in February.
When police took a reading they found him more than three times the legal limit.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Mackay, of High Road, Newport, was ashamed of his behaviour and it was the first time he’d been in trouble with the police.
Depute fiscal Lee Corr told the court: “A witness was driving eastbound and noticed the car in lane one driving erratically.
“The witness was concerned and followed the accused.
“He stayed behind him while the vehicle continued to travel erratically.”
After the car came to a stop, the witness approached the driver’s window.
He could smell alcohol and asked Mackay to hand over his keys.
Police were called and the pensioner failed a breath test.
Defence solicitor Jim Caird, in mitigation for Mackay, said: “He is 72 and has never been in trouble before.
“He is extremely embarrassed and ashamed of this incident.
“He accepts he is responsible. He had been at the golf course with friends.”
Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon banned Mackay from the roads for a year.
He told him: “I respect this is very distressing, coming to court for the first time.
“It is a serious matter, you were driving on a busy road.”
Mackay admitted driving while over the limit, providing a breath specimen of 77/100ml of breath, more than the proscribed legal limit of 22/100.
He was also fined £300.
Murder accused
A man has appeared in court charged with murder after a body was found in a Fife village.
Henry White, 57, was found dead by police at a property in Erskine Wynd, Oakley, on Wednesday.
Christopher Brown, 35, of no fixed abode, made no plea when the single charge of murder was put to him at Dunfermline Sheriff Court on Friday and he was remanded in custody.
He is expected to make a follow-up appearance at the same court next week.
His finger slipped
A tattooed pervert who sent images of his penis to two teenage girls has been placed on the sex offenders register.
Daniel Lynch claimed his “fingers slipped” resulting in the vile image being posted to Snapchat.
The 22-year-old also sent images of decapitated heads and dead bodies to a social media group chat containing teenagers.
Lynch’s distinctive tattoos were key to identifying him in some of the images.
Lynch, of Plover Brae, Livingston, had earlier admitted sending a sexualised images to teenage girls between November 1 2019 and December 17 this year and on January 9 2020 and causing teenage girls to view a sexual image on January 11 2020, all at addresses in Fife.
Sheriff Timothy Niven-Smith placed him on a two-year supervision order and placed restrictions on Lynch’s use of the internet.
Boyfriend from hell
A boyfriend-from-hell threatened to torch his partner and a baby while they lay in bed and smashed up another girlfriend’s phone because she had male friends on Facebook.
Serial abuser James Stewart performed a spinning kick on another girlfriend, leaving her in “excruciating pain,” because he didn’t want her to go out with her pals.
Another time, he threatened to throw boiling water over a woman and a child.
Perth Sheriff Court heard he only calmed down when the woman apologised to him and told him it was all her fault.
The 24-year-old, from Perth, appeared in the dock on Thursday and admitted a series of domestically-aggravated offending against four ex-girlfriends between September 2017 and March 2021.
Two of his victims were forced to drop out of college because of his conduct, the court heard.
Sheriff Gillian Wade deferred sentence, but said she had so far not been persuaded that Stewart should serve “anything less” than four years in jail.
Officer injured
A police sergeant who attended a disturbance in Cupar ended up being cut by glass shards after a man broke his own door panel.
Iain Crawford’s neighbour phoned for police on November 4, 2021, when they heard banging and chanting from his Kinloss Park flat.
He initially refused to let officers in and then used an unknown item to smash the window panel of his front door from the inside.
Sergeant Andrew Mitchell, on the doorstep, was injured when shards struck him.
Glass ended up hitting the officer’s eye and had to be removed from his scalp and forehead.
Firefighters also attended.
Crawford, 36, admitted acting in a manner likely to cause a reasonable person to suffer fear and alarm, and culpably and recklessly smashing the glass panel to the danger of lieges.
Sheriff George Way said: “Standing this took place almost ten months into a community payback order, I need to know what happened.
“I’ll call for reports.”
Solicitor Lucy Boylen said her client was struggling during lockdown with alcohol and cocaine addictions.
Crawford will be sentenced back at Dundee Sheriff Court on April 20.
McFelony
A 35-year-old Dunfermline drink driver was caught after McDonald’s drive-thru staff raised concerns with police.
Connor McIntyre, of Fodbank View, was nearly three times the legal limit at the time of the offence on February 27.
Procurator fiscal depute Catherine Stevenson told Dunfermline Sheriff Court that police were made aware by staff at the Fife leisure park McDonald’s drive-through of a man suspected to be under the influence.
The car was stopped by police in Sanderling Way.
Officers reported smelling alcohol on the driver and that he was slurring his words.
Defence lawyer David McLaughlin said his client had been drinking the night before and went to bed but regrettably drove to the takeaway.
McIntyre, a roofer, previously pled guilty to the drink driving charge and appeared in court for sentencing.
Sheriff Peter Anderson banned McIntyre from driving for 16 months and fined him £400.
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