Inverness trainee mechanic's job at risk after drink-driving charge

A trainee mechanic will find himself unemployed after he was banned from driving for refusing to give police breath samples at Burnett Road Police Station, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.

Robert Lees (20), of the city's Mackintosh Road, was seen driving without lights in the dark by a police mobile patrol in Kenneth Street, Inverness, at about 8.45pm on March 10 said fiscal depute Karen Poke.

He then came to an abrupt halt on the road causing vehicles to swerve round him. When he got out the car police approached him and when he was asked to give a breath test he became "highly emotional and abusive".

He failed a roadside breath test, and later at the police station refused to give breath samples.

Defence solicitor John MacColl said Lees required a driving licence for his work and was going to lose his job and go onto benefits. He said his client had been drinking alcohol and became upset at what he had done when stopped by the police.

Lees was fined £340 and banned from driving for a year after admitting the charge, but Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald allowed him to go on a drink-driver rehabilitation course if he paid for it himself, and if he completed that it could reduce the length of his driving ban.