10-pint drink-driver Kevan Walker avoids jail term
A man who drank 10 pints of beer before crashing his car into a taxi in East Renfrewshire has been fined £4,500 and banned from driving for three years.
Kevan Walker, from Ayr, admitted causing the crash on Crookfur Road, Newton Mearns, on 13 May last year.
The court heard he could not remember getting into the car and was almost four times the legal limit at the time.
Sheriff Colin Pettigrew told Walker he would be jailed if he defaulted on any of the terms of his sentence.
Paisley Sheriff Court heard that accountant Walker had driven from Wolverhampton, where he worked, to attend a night out at the Parklands Country Club in Newton Mearns.
He had taken a taxi to the venue but somehow, at the end of the night, he and his brother ended up back in his car.
The court was told that the taxi driver, travelling east in Crookfur Road, became aware of Walker's car coming straight at him on the wrong side of the road.
He was unable to avoid the collision, which damaged both vehicles extensively.
When police arrived on the scene at about 23:15, Walker approached and told them he had been driving after drinking.
When breath-tested he gave a reading of 121 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres. The legal limit is now 22, although at the time of the offence it was 35.
Walker admitted driving dangerously and causing the collision while being over the drink-drive limit.
Sentencing him, Sheriff Pettigrew said that imprisonment could well have been an option but having considered the submissions, he would refrain from that option.
"The report here states that you consumed 10 pints of beer and that from half past ten that night you have no recollection at all," the sheriff said.
"You don't recall getting into the car and you don't remember driving.
"You were a danger to yourself and your brother and anyone else who happened to be on the road. You drove into the path of the taxi and everyone involved is very fortunate to have escaped injury."
Walker was fined a total of £4,500, to be paid at £300 per month. He was also disqualified for three years and ordered to re-sit his test before being allowed to drive again.
Sheriff Pettigrew added: "If you default in any way, you will go to jail."