A drink-driver who sneezed and crashed his car before walking home to get another vehicle to tow it back onto the road has avoided jail.
Farm worker Ian Simpson, 59, was more than three times the limit when he veered off the B967 Arbuthnott Road, near Inverbervie, on October 28 and ended up down an embankment.
He walked home, had a large whisky, then went back to the scene in another car in a bid to pull the first one up the hill.
Simpson, of Kinneff, Aberdeenshire, previously pled guilty to driving with 76 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath – the limit is 22mcgs. He also admitted being in charge of another vehicle. The court heard he has a previous conviction for a similar offence.
Defence agent Gail Goodfellow said her client had been working as a dairyman but since the offences he had been signed off work and intended to resign. She said her client was diagnosed with cancer three years ago, his mental health had been impacted and he had “regrettably resorted” to alcohol use.
She previously said Simpson had been working on the evening prior to the offence. He returned home, had a bottle of beer and a large whisky – but was then called out to deal with an alarm going off on a milk tank.
Sheriff Ian Wallace banned him from the road for three years as well as placing him under supervision for a year and ordering him to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work as an alternative to custody.