A drink-driver got behind the wheel after a night out in Aberdeen to escape a “disturbance” in which he and his pals were getting a “hiding”.
Adam Walker drove his pals to safety away form the disturbance, but then continued to drive too fast and crashed into a wall.
The 19-year-old pled guilty to careless driving and to driving with 41 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath on July 28. The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.
Fiscal depute Susan Love told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “At 2.55am police received a phone call from a member of the public reporting a disturbance on St Andrews Street.
“Police attended but nobody was there at that point.
“CCTV operators were able to observe three witnesses and the accused enter a vehicle and drive away from the locus.
“A search was thereafter conducted for that vehicle and a short time later police traced the vehicle on Hilton Street.
“The vehicle had collided with a wall on Hilton Street at a privately owned property.
“On approaching the vehicle the accused made himself known to police and stated he was the driver of the vehicle.”
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Ms Love said a witness told police Walker had been driving “over the speed limit”.
She added “significant damage” had been caused to the wall but it had since been repaired.
Defence agent Peter Shepherd said: “The accused and his friends had been consuming alcohol. There was no intention of driving at that time.
“On making their way home an argument occurred between further males and females.
“That resulted in an incident with the accused and his friends being assaulted.
“He gets involved in this incident. It’s not his fault.
“They get in the car and they drive away.”
Mr Shepherd added his client had “received a bit of a hiding, as indeed had his friends”.
He added his client drove “too fast” after the emergency had gone and crashed.
Mr Shepherd said Walker was “upset and ashamed” about the incident.
Sheriff Philip Mann told Walker, of Kirkton of Rayne, Inverurie: “Your initial decision to drive was perhaps understandable.
“The difficulty was you continued after the emergency passed.
“Here we have a perfect example of what can happen if you drive with excess alcohol, you can drive at excessive speed and have an accident or cause an accident.
“Other than by good fortune you could have seriously injured or worse some other person. You really have to be very careful about drinking and driving.”
He banned him from driving for 12 months and fined him £740.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, a drink-driving supermarket worker was banned from the road after driving to work while almost five times the limit.
Ronald Troughton, 65, admitted driving with 108 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath on the A97 Aberchirder to Huntly road and other roads around Huntly on July 26.
Ms Love said a member of the public spotted Troughton at 6.40am and was “concerned at the manner of driving” and contacted police.
Officers found the vehicle parked “diagonally” in an Asda car park and traced Troughton inside.
Defence agent Lynn Bentley said her client suffered from a number of physical health problems and took pain killers, which were not always enough to help him.
She said: “What he was doing to try and get to sleep at night was combining the pain killers with alcohol.
“He would drink some wine during the evening and take his pain killers in the hope he would get some sleep.
“On autopilot he gets up and goes to his work.”
She added he was “extremely apologetic”.
Sheriff Mann told Troughton, of Gellymill Street, Macduff, he was required to disqualify him from driving for at least three years due to a previous conviction.
He added: “I don’t think even that is sufficient to mark the level of alcohol that was in your system at this time, and also taking into account your previous conviction.”
Sheriff Mann banned him from driving for 40 months and fined him £520.
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