A crofter who had nine previous convictions for drink driving has been jailed for six months and banned from driving for life.
Angus Macmillan Macleod, of Cromore, South Lochs, Lewis, pleaded guilty to driving a quad bike while disqualified and nearly three times over the limit.
The 52-year-old appeared at Stornoway Sheriff Court on Monday.
Sentencing Macleod, Sheriff David Sutherland said it was the islander's ninth drink-driving offence.
He imposed a six month sentence on the first charge and banned Macleod from driving for life.
Village drive
The sheriff also handed down a three month sentence and a five year drivng ban on the second offence. The sentences will run concurrently.
The court heard that police officers on patrol saw the accused driving the quad bike through the village of Cromore.
The vehicle was stopped and a breath test showed excess alcohol of 108 microgrammes when the prescribed limit is 35 microgrammes.
Stornoway solicitor Ken Macdonald said his client seemed to be under the impresson that driving a quad bike was different from driving another type of motor vehicle.
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What on earth is the point in banning someone for driving for 5 years AFTER they've been banned for life? To stop their corpse driving the coffin away, perhaps?
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What on earth is the point in banning someone for drivingfor 5 years AFTER they've been banned for life? To stop their corpse driving the coffin away, perhaps?
It was concurrent,so runs parallel with the other sentence.>>
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What on earth is the point in banning someone for driving >> for 5 years AFTER they've been banned for life? To >> stop their corpse driving the coffin away, perhaps? It was concurrent,so runs parallel with the other sentence.>>
Dont two negatives make a positive?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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Someone who has such a blatant disregard for the law and other road users should be dealt with very harshly.I would favour removal of a finger each time(the same for burglars,muggers,car thieves etc).After 4 or 5 times,changing gear may become a bit of a problem, and after 6 or 7 times driving at all would be impossible and the offender might have got the message.
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But what about their Human Rights?
[/sarcasm]
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Bet you 50 quid I could still drive a car with no fingers.
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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"Bet you 50 quid I could still drive a car with no fingers."
Especially if you had a few pints before trying!
Does anyone thing that the bloke will take any notice of the ban? The jail sentence might deter him, but he quite clearly has never learned from being banned before. Anyone with that attitude to the law is unlikely to live within the terms of a ban.
V
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Does anyone thing that the bloke will take any notice of the ban?
You're right, of course he won't.
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>> Does anyone thing that the bloke will take any notice of the ban?
I would assume he is also not insured after that many convictions.
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The guy lives in the back of beyond in a place with no traffic to speak of, and is presumably an alcoholic. Nothing has been said about his driving under the influence. Was he a threat or not? One would have thought the locals would know about him and give him a wide berth.
Perhaps he will be able to stay offroad, or is that illegal too? Quite like the idea of arriving at the shops in the field at the back and climbing over the fence.
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Had an ex boss who had one DD conviction, he got a Discovery as a co car, we used to joke that it was so he could get home from the pub without going near a road.
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Had an ex boss who had one DD conviction, he got a Discovery as a co car, we used to joke that it was so he could get home from the pub without going near a road.
Been there and done that - had a mate who lived on a farm between Newbury and Reading, we worked out that we could get to a pub about 4 miles away without going on a single public road (much of it was not on roads at all), I had a heavily modded range rover at the time, so we gave it a go - seemed alot easier on the way back!!!!
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.....and is presumably an alcoholic.
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Thats a bit of an assumption if you ask me!
I knew someone who lived 2 miles down a private road. He used to drive his car to the top of the road. He would then walk to the pub and then back to his car before driving the two miles back home. He did this every Saturday night for over 5 years before the police stopped him. He was done for drunk driving.
The police deemed that the road was used as access to more than one property so therefore was NOT a private road.
This man didn't believe he was doing anything wrong so confessed to over 200 counts of driving under the influence.
In the end he got a 6 month ban and a £500 fine with a warning never to do it again. I think the Sherrif was having a good day!
So presumably by your standards, this guy (who goes to the pub once a week) is a raging alcoholic who should be locked up until hell freezes over.
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Only once a week eh? So perhaps he's that fashionable creature the 'binge drinker'. All I can say is that 10 DD convictions suggest to me an alcohol problem.
I don't think people with alcohol problems should be imprisoned or bothered in any way provided they don't harm anyone else.
I think the police were lying in wait for your friend who lived down the two-mile private road, in a thoroughly caddish and ungentlemanly way. Perhaps one of his neighbours had complained? I don't think he was doing much wrong either, and if the Sheriff was having a good day when he walloped him with a £500 fine merely for being over the limit on a private road I wouldn't want to have been up before him for (say) poaching a pheasant when he had a hangover!
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