Drink-driving gardener walks free for second time!

A MAN caught drink-driving after crashing his car only hours after being spared jail for a previous offence walked free again yesterday.

Jamie Alexander, 27, crashed his Vauxhall Corsa into a fence at a farm while nearly three times the limit, resulting in animals escaping from the field.

He had gone to the pub to celebrate being spared jail for a previous drinkdriving offence. At Paisley Sheriff Court last month, Alexander, pictured, admitted drink-driving and being in possession of a blade in public.

He could have been jailed for up to 12 months for the offences but was given a £900 fine and 12-month driving ban instead. To celebrate, he then went to the pub – and on the way home lost control of his car.

In the dock again at Paisley Sheriff Court, he pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, drink-driving, driving without insurance and careless driving.

Procurator fiscal depute Carol Cameron said the offences took place on August 28, just after Alexander had been at court the first time. He claimed he had lost control of the car after suffering a tyre blowout – then claimed someone must have stolen his car and crashed it, even though he still had the key.

Defence solicitor Amy Spencer asked for leniency, saying Alexander’s girlfriend was struggling ‘emotionally and financially’ and that he knew his actions had been ‘beyond stupid’.

After hearing that landscape gardener Alexander, of Johnstone, Renfrewshire, had written to the farmer, apologising and offering to fix the fence and field, Sheriff James Spy ordered him to do 250 hours unpaid work and banned him from driving for 42 months.