Hogmanay drink-driver banned

A drink-driver who crashed his car after a Hogmanay binge has been banned from the roads for two years.

Mindaugas Skilys downed two bottles of red wine before getting into his car in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

The 28-year-old then drove in the Glenrothes area before his car left the road and collided with a tree on Pitteuchar Drive.

Police officers arrived a short while later and described the driver as being “unsteady” on his feet with marks on his shoulder consistent with a seatbelt injury.

Skilys, who lives in Torryburn, then fell to the floor and passed out before being taken to hospital by ambulance where he provided samples.

He was found to be more than twice the legal breath limit with a reading of 55 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath.

Officers searched the crashed car and found unemployed Skilys’s wallet with his Romanian driving licence inside. When he was charged for drink-driving, Skilys replied: “It was me.”

The court heard how Skilys “can’t remember getting into his car” after drinking two bottles of red wine but that he “regrets the circumstances of his actions”.

Sheriff James Williamson banned him from the road for 24 months and handed him a £500 fine discounted from £750 for his early guilty plea to drink-driving.