# General > Doanalsin's Diary >  Stiff penalties for drinks driver

## Nwicker60

"Extraordinary" case of accused more than three-times the limit
A DRINKS driver, who was caught with more than three times the  legal limit, has been fined £1,300.
Offshore worker Ian Richard, 48, was also fined a further £500 for having no  licence, by Sheriff Andrew Berry who refrained from ordering forfeiture  of the accused's car but banned him from driving for 20 months.
Richard  was on his way to catch the ferry for Orkney to deliver Christmas  presents when he was stopped by police, at Killimster, on November 8.   Tests confirmed the accused's admission to officers, acting on a  tiip-off that he had "had a few drams".  These revealed a breath-alcohol  level of 112mgs- the legal limit is 35mgs, Wick Sheriff Court heard  today.
Richard,  of 144 Dover Park, Dunfermline, pleaded guilty.  He was said to have  consumed four pints and three drams before getting behind the wheel of  his Audi.
That was described by Sheriff Berry as "really extraordinary for someone who shouldn't have been on the road at all".
The sheriff added: "If you had had previous convictions of any significance, you would certainly have been going to prison."
Richard's  solicitor, Fiona MacDonald, successfully appealed to Sheriff Berry not  to grant an application for forfeiture of the accused's £1,300 car  -impounded at an earlier hearing - arguing that there was considerable  finance outstanding on the vehicle and it was the loan company that  would suffer.
The  sheriff commented that had Richard been subject to the new legal  drinks-driving limit of 50mgs he would have been many times the legal  limit.

----------

