Crashed his car after warning

Andrew Reid (21), from Denny, decided to heed the message and go home – but ploughed into three bollards before coming to a halt.

The collision on Glasgow Road near Whins of Milton, Stirling, at around 11.10am on April 16 was reported to the police and a breath test on Reid showed he was nearly three times the legal limit.

At Stirling Sheriff Court on Tuesday, Reid, who serves in the Royal Engineers, was banned for 12 months and fined £350.

The court was told officers found Reid’s Vauxhall Astra GTC SRI sitting on the wrong side of the road with its airbags deployed and “extensive damage” to its front nearside wheel and wheel arch.

Paramedics also raced to the scene, but Reid was uninjured.

Prosecutor Lindsey Brooks said he was breathalysed and arrested and gave a breath sample at Stirling police station that gave a reading of 62 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath - nearly three times the legal limit of 22.

Sheriff Kevin Veal said: “This is a classic case of the morning after the night before.”

Defence lawyer Willie McIntyre agreed it was one with an unusual twist.

He said: “Reid had been drinking the previous night and heading to Stirling to visit a friend when he received the text.

‘‘He pulled into a layby to read it and took what he thought was the sensible decision to return home immediately. As he was doing a U-turn he hit three bollards. A really sensible decision would have been to stop driving at once.”

Mr McIntyre asked Sheriff Veal to restrict the period of disqualification as much as possible.

The sheriff gave him the option of attending a drink-drivers’ rehabilitation course which, if successfully completed, will reduce the ban to nine months.