Inverness drug-driver claimed he switched to go behind the wheel to keep his brother out of trouble
An unemployed lorry driver claimed police had got it wrong when he was charged with drug-driving and insisted that it was his uninsured brother who was at the wheel at the time.
A trial at Inverness Sheriff Court heard that when police caught up with 43-year-old Steven Connor's Audi A3 in Carnarc Crescent, after seeing it a short distance away in Inverness's Kessock Road, he was at the wheel.
But Connor said in evidence that his brother Paul had been driving on September 3 last year and when Paul Connor spotted the police, they pulled in and switched seats so as Paul would not get prosecuted for driving without insurance.
However, Sheriff Gary Aitken didn't accept Connor's explanation that his brother had driven five miles from his home in Towerhill Road, Inverness to the Merkinch area because he was thought he was unfit after taking cocaine.
Sheriff Aitken queried why Connor had then got into the driving seat to let his brother off the hook which allowed police to charge him with drug-driving.
Connor said "It was a spur of the moment decision so Paul wouldn't get into trouble."
Two police officers gave evidence and were 100 per cent sure that Steven Connor was at the wheel when they first saw his car, which they said they knew was involved in drugs.
Connor was found guilty of driving with 136mcgs of a cocaine metabolite in his system when the legal driving limit is 50mcgs.
He was fined £940 and banned from driving for a year.
