Boozed-up man took dad’s car to get to work
A “moment of madness” led to a boozed-up Perth warehouseman‘borrowing’ his father’s Audi A6 in the early hours to get to work on time.
But 25-year-old Frazer Steen smashed into two parked cars near his home, shunting one of them off the road and onto the pavement.
The Audi sustained front end damage and later tests showed the accused had been more than four times over the drink limit.
To add to his woes, he did not have a full licence, nor any insurance, Perth Sheriff Court was told.
The catalogue of driving charges led to him being disqualified for two years. But he was spared a jail term when he appeared for sentence this week.
Instead, Steen, of Dunnock Park, was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work within the next six months.
He will also be supervised by a social worker for a year and will have to attend a drink driving group course.
Sheriff Keith O’Mahony told him: “There, but for the grace of God, you are facing only these charges.
“It would be open to me to imprison you today but due to your age - and lack of record - I will impose the direct alternative of a community payback order.”
Steen admitted taking away the car without consent from outside his home on September 7 and driving without a licence and insurance cover in Gowans Terrace. He also had 96 microgrammes of alcohol on his breath - the maximum allowed is 22.
Steen pled guilty to a fifth charge of failing to stop and give his name and address after colliding with a Chevrolet and a Mitsubishi, as well as a brick wall, in Gowans Terrace.
Depute fiscal Mairi Graham said the accused had been in the town centre on a night out. His father was wakened about 2am and was aware his son had to go to work in an hour.
It later emerged the accused had collided with the two parked cars and police discovered the Audi “abandoned” in Gowans Terrace.
Steen telephoned his father and kept repeating how “stupid” he had been after taking the car and crashing it.
“The accused was slurring his words and sounded intoxicated at the time,” added the fiscal.
He held only a provisional licence and had never previously driven the Audi, even as a learner.
Solicitor Jamie Baxter, for Steen, said: “It was a moment of madness on his part.”
He was focused on getting to his work but had clearly been drinking in the town.
“He arrived home, probably in no fit state to go to work, but took the decision, in which alcohol played a considerable part - and the inevitable circumstances followed,” Mr Baxter added.