Car-crash accountant four times limit a day after drinking session

Driver, 52, who hit lamp-post couldn’t tell how much he’d drank

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A drink-driver had consumed so much wine that he was more four times the limit when he crashed his car the next day.

Company accountant Christopher Whyte almost caused a collision with another car then reversed into a lamppost in Kelty.

Whyte, 52, of Whyterose Cottage, Blacknowes, Kinross, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

He admitted that on March 25 on the B996 and Church Road, Kelty, he drove a car without due care and attention, drove into the opposite carriageway forcing an oncoming vehicle to take evasive action and then reversed into a lamp-post.

He also admitted driving after consuming excess alcohol. His reading was 93 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, the legal limit being 22 microgrammes.

The court heard Whyte is an

“You’ve had a rough time but taking to drink is not a good idea. Drinkdrivers kill people. SHERIFF BROWN

accountant for a haulage firm in Crossgates.

Defence solicitor Paul Donnachie said: “It’s fair to say there had been a great deal of strife at the company for a number of years. This resulted in a number of redundancies including Mr Whyte’s assistant. He felt he was caught in the middle of it all.

“Then in February his father dropped dead, which traumatised him. His partner is a nurse and he was also very anxious about her having to work during the Covid-19 outbreak.”

Mr Donnachie said his client had started drinking wine from a box the previous afternoon and did not know how much he had consumed.

Sheriff Alastair Brown said: “Whether he was drinking from a box or a bottle he would know how many glasses of wine he’d had. Unless, of course, he’d drunk so much he didn’t know how many.”

“That seems to have been the case,” said the solicitor.

Whyte had been driving to buy milk from a shop when the offences occurred.

Mr Donnachie added: “Words can’t describe the mortification he feels.”

Sheriff Brown said he sympathised with the stressful time Whyte was going through. He told him: “You’ve had a rough time but taking to drink is not a good idea. Drink-drivers kill people.”

Whyte was fined £500 and banned from driving for 16 months.