A bus contract for a Perthshire company worth £40,000 per year was lost after one of its directors was charged with being drunk while driving a bus full of schoolchildren for 20 miles.
Perth and Kinross Council confirmed that the contract with Kenneth Carey, 56, of Aultbeag Road in Grandtully, was terminated immediately following his arrest last year on a drink-driving charge.
It emerged during his appearance at Perth Sheriff Court on Tuesday that his bus firm Caber Coaches Ltd, in which he was a director had previously been contracted to transport Breadalbane Academy pupils from their homes to Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy.
Carey was banned from driving for six years at Perth Sheriff Court on Tuesday, after he admitted that, on June 21 last year on Main Street, Killin, and roads within Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy, he drove with excess alcohol (105 mic). The legal limit is 35 mic.
He will have to sit the extended driving test after serving his ban.
Solicitor Paul Ralph, for Carey, had told the court that the bus contract was lost after Carey was charged.
“The bus operator’s licence was lost and my client is no longer a director,” he said.
Mr Ralph told the court that he hoped this incident would be a “wake-up call” for Carey but his client was later charged with a series of offences, including behaving in a threatening manner by standing on top of a bus and repeatedly shouting, uttering threats, banging on bus windows and waving a petrol can around, between January 23 and 24 inclusive, at Birks View, Aberfeldy.
These incidents were described by Mr Ralph as being akin to something out of 1970s comedy film National Lampoon’s Animal House.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis imposed a six-month compulsion order, a mental health disposal made by the court, for these charges and, as a result, admonished Carey. Carey is receiving treatment at Murray Royal Hospital in Perth.
A parent of one of the pupils on board the bus on June 21 last year, who wished to remain anonymous, expressed his fears about what could have happened that day.
“Carey was given a substantial driving ban at court but I feel the length of the sentence is small considering what the consequences may have been that day,” he told The Courier.
“The roads he travelled on are treacherous, so to drive 20 schoolchildren on a bus while drunk is just unbelievable.”
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council confirmed the contract was terminated on June 21 2012, which was the day of the police involvement.
“The council’s public transport unit had not received any reports of Mr Carey drinking and driving prior to being apprehended by police at Breadalbane Academy,” he said.
“If we had, we would certainly have followed the allegation up as a matter of urgency and may have temporarily suspended Mr Carey’s authorisation to drive Perth and Kinross Council transport contracts until an investigation had been concluded.”
He added that the contract with Mr Carey began on August 19 2008.