Driver mistakes house for hotel and crashes into garden wall
A MAN was found to be behind the wheel whilst under the influence of drugs after driving across a man’s lawn in Cove and colliding with a wall in the first week of Lothian and Borders Police’s annual festive drink and drug driving campaign.
Police attention was drawn to the man of Dutch nationality after a member of the public said he had attended his home, thinking it was a hotel.
After being told it wasn’t the man got into his car and proceeded to drive across a piece of grass and hit a wall.
The driver’s Honda Civic was traced by officers between Cove and Pease Bay and the 59 year old was arrested and subsequently cautioned and charged with an offence under Section 4 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, having been deemed by a Forces’ Medical Examiner to be unfit through drugs.
The man was remanded in custody at Hawick and appeared at Selkirk Sheriff Court on Monday where he was fined £300 and banned from driving for 15 months.
The incident occurred just as the totals for the first week of the police’s crackdown on drink/drug driving were being calculated but there was another notable incident in the Borders at the start of the campaign.
At 8.45pm on December 3 a male was observed driving a Blue Vauxhall Astra on A698, pulling into the filling station at Sainsbury’s, Kelso.
Officers stopped and spoke with the 48 year old driver where he thereafter provided a positive roadside breath test.
He was arrested and taken to Kelso police station where he provided a specimen of breath three times the drink drive limit. He was subsequently charged with drink driving and having no MOT certificate.
The driver was kept in custody and at a court appearance on Monday was fined £500 and disqualified from driving for 20 months.
A third drink driving arrest in the Borders during the first week occurred after a man was reported to the police for driving his Vauxhall Corsa irregularly in Galashiels in the early hours of Saturday, December 8.
The 54 year old man provided a sample of breath that registered at more than three times the legal limit. He was charged and held in custody for a court appearance on Monday when he was fined £440 and banned from driving for two years.
The fourth and final driver caught in the Borders was a 24 year old male from Hawick who was stopped on his motorbike in the town and found to be over the limit. He was charged and will be reported to the Procurator Fiscal.
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Friday 24 May 2013
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