Prison for drink driver who crashed

More than twice the legal limit

A driver with a history of drink-driving offences who crashed her car near Doune while more than twice over the limit was last week jailed.

Clementine Macdonald admitted a charge of driving on the Hill of Row road near Inverardoch Mains Farm on December 23 last year when she had 54mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The limit being 22mg.

The fiscal depute told Stirling Sheriff Court last week that a witness had been driving his car on the B824 road at 3.45pm that day and noticed a Ford Fiesta being driven. The driver of the Ford Fiesta lost control of the vehicle and crashed.

The incident had been recorded on the witness’s dashcam and police were contacted.

When police arrived the Fiesta had one occupant. Macdonald told them she had been the driver of the Fiesta.

A breath test was taken and she was arrested.

The test procedure was then carried out at a police station when Macdonald was found to have the 54mg reading.

Her agent Harry Couchlin told Sheriff Wyllie Robertson the matter before the court was a serious one given his client’s “significant record for drinkrelated driving offences.”

Macdonald was receiving assistance for her drink problem from a support group in Alloa. He asked Sheriff Robertson to consider supervision “rather than any other disposal.”

However, Sheriff Robertson told 37-year-old Macdonald, of Alloa, that the recommendation from the social work department was an unrealistic one.

He described the offence as a serious one and that Macdonald had “an appalling (criminal) record generally” with more than 40 previous convictions.

Matters, he added, had “got to the stage where the only appropriate sentence is a custodial one.”

He sentenced Macdonald to four months’ imprisonment, reduced from six due to the timing of the guilty plea, and disqualified her from driving for three years, reduced from four and a half years.