Daily list of drink and drunk drivers in court
Consequences can be horrific
behaviour is a priority for Police Scotland officers and our emergency service colleagues who sadly deal with the consequences of those drivers who do not view this as illegal behaviour.
“It is important that we continue to work collectively with partners and the public to influence changing attitudes towards road safety and safe driving across Renfrewshire.
“There are very recent examples of convictions motorists have received.
“It sends a clear message to anyone who deliberately, or negligently, endangers themselves or other road users by their actions that such behaviour can have a real social impact.
“It needs to be recognised by those motorists who take chances and flout the law that speeding, dangerous and careless driving can have severe consequences in terms of causing injury or death, loss of licence and potentially livelihood.”
Paisley Sheriff Court is besieged by cases of dangerous and careless driving.
Drugged and boozed-up motorists are being hauled into the dock daily.
Others are being hammered for erratic behaviour, white- knuckle manoeuvres and ignoring road rules.
Sheriffs jailed one man earlier this week for leading cops on a terrifying chase through residential streets.
Jonathan Irwin, 27, was caged for 11 months after he swerved onto the wrong side of the road, into oncoming traffic and ran red lights during the 55mph housing estate pursuit.
The yob had already been disqualified when he took to the roads on March 22.
The court heard he drove through Johnstone Castle at high speed into the path of approaching cars.
Irwin, of Larch Place, Johnstone, only stopped when police blocked the carriageway.
Yesterday, motor mechanic David McGugan, 45, was handed 300 hours of community service after he admitted crashing into parked cars, mounting a kerb and driving on the wrong side of the road.
He was high on cocktail of drink and drugs when he careered through a string of streets in Elderslie last November.
McGugan, of the village’s Auchenlodment Road, was spared jail after the court heard he would lose his job.
Last month, joyrider Devlin Mitchell, 22, was locked up for seven months after legging it from his mate’s motor after being followed by police.
Officers caught him running down a grass embankment after he weaved into a dead end and was chased through streets in the south of Paisley.
The dangerous driver, of the town’s Beauly Drive, was sent down for speeding, fleeing cops and refusing to give a breath specimen.
Earlier this year, David Suter, 25, was banged up for six months after stealing a van before sparking a 22-minute police chase.
The thug almost ran over an OAP as he fled in the stolen Ford transit at speeds of up to 70mph.
He smashed into another car and ploughed through a roundabout the wrong way, before losing control and mounting a wall on Gleniffer Road.
He tried to make off on foot and jumped from the passenger- side window, before plunging 10 feet into a burn and breaking his wrist on February 8.
Suter, of Grampian Avenue, Paisley, was slammed by Sheriff Susan Sinclair.
She said: “You travelled at high speeds over significant distance in built up areas and nearly hit a pedestrian.
“I have to reflect the court’s displeasure at this sort of driving.”
Dad-of-two Garry McGIll, 39, begged to be jailed after the car he was driving with no licence hit a lamppost and crashed into a field.
The heroin addict had to be rescued by other drivers after he was trapped when the motor careered off the A737.
He was found with a three tenner bag stash of the class-A drug after being rushed to the Royal Alexandra Hospital, in Paisley.
Defence lawyer Gerry McMillan called for his client, of Howden Avenue, Kilwinning, North Ayrshire, to be caged during a bizarre plea.
He said: “When I asked him why he behaved this way, he told me it was simply stupidity. He would fail a Community Payback Order and he wouldn’t be able to pay a fine.
“He would rather receive a custodial sentence.”
McGill was driving with no licence or insurance when he was pulled from the blue Peugeot 206 after it crashed into farmland on September 29.
He was jailed for just 28 days in February.
Boozy driver Callum Colvin, 22, smashed into the front of town centre pub the Tea Gardens Tavern the day after his birthday last month.
He lost control of his blue Vauxhall Corsa with two passengers inside, while turning into Causeyside Street, and incredibly swerved up onto the kerbside and becoming wedged between a wall and a parked Mini Cooper.
Colvin, of nearby Ferguslie Park Avenue, pled guilty to charges of careless driving and driving while over the legal limit on April 16.
He w a s found t o ha v e 82- microgrammes of alcohol in 100-millilitres of breath – almost four times the limit.
He was also fined £750 and banned from the road for 18 months.
Last November, a teenage lout was disqualified for 12 months after he dashed over two footpaths in a car he had only bought that day.
Kai Gilmour, 18, lost control of his blue Peugeot and crashed into woods beside Brediland Road the previous March.
Fiscal depute Pamela Flynn told the court concerned members of the public raised the alarm.
She said: “Police attended and found a car with significant damage some 25 metres from the roadway, having crossed a grass verge and two public footpaths.
“They were passed a description of the driver.
“The accused was traced a short distance away and was sweating and his face was covered in dirt.
“He freely admitted being the driver, saying, ‘I’m sorry, it was me that was driving.’”
Sheriff Seith Ireland blasted Gilmour over his antics.
He said: “Dangerous driving is clearly a serious offence.”
Gilmour, of Lochinver Crescent, Paisley, was also slapped with a £400 fine.
In December, Christopher Walker, 25, left an elderly passenger with a brain injury after smashing into another vehicle while overtaking on a blind bend.
He slammed his Volvo C30 into the car driven by the son of James Guild, 86, at up to 60mph, leaving him with internal bleeding.
Walker was banned from the road for a year and ordered to re-sit the extended test of competence to drive before he will be allowed back on the roads.
The building surveying student at City of Glasgow College admitted putting the pensioner in the Royal Alexandra Hospital following the manoeuvre on Houston Road.
He was blasted for travelling at an “inappropriate speed” for the weather conditions in November last year.
Last month, Pawel Gloginski, 34, of Brown Street, Paisley, was fined £700 and banned for five months for a horrified motorbike crash which almost killed him.
The biker was catapulted from his machine and ended up entangled in the branches of a tree.
He lost control of the Yamaha as he drove too fast on the approach to the Centreholm roundabout on the A726, in Erskine.
Gloginski collided with a car waiting at the junction and was hurled over its roof last May.
He suffered such serious injuries – multiple fractures – that he ended up in a life-threatening condition and spent over two weeks in hospital before he was discharged.
Earlier this month, drugged-up mum Lisa Gilmour, 31, was disqualified for three years after passing out behind the wheel next to a girl of 10.
Her Ford Focus clipped another car’s wing mirror, before she rounded a corner, and rolled to a stop and passed out.
Police found Gilmour, of Ness Avenue, Johnstone, slurring and motionless outside her home with the keys still in the ignition yards from a school on February 3.
She has a previous conviction for drink-driving.
Sheriff Simon Fraser told her: “It is a privilege to be allowed a licence.”
Road safety charity Brake has called for harsher sentences for those caught breaking the law.
It found travelling too fast for conditions was a contributing factor in 23 per cent of fatal crashes in 2015.
Gary Rae, campaigns director for Brake, said: “Toughening the fines and penalties for speeding is long overdue.
“As a charity that offers a support service to families bereaved and injured in road crashes, we see every day the consequences of speeding on our roads.
“I hope that courts ensure the new sentences are consistently applied.”
Currently in the UK the minimum penalty for speeding is a £100 fine and three penalty points added to your licence, while the maximum fine is £1,000 or £2,500 for motorway offences.