Three times limit driver pays penalty

A boozed-up Wishaw man has been fined and banned from driving after being caught behind the wheel whilst being over the drink-drive limit.

Aidan Groome appeared at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday and admitted three charges against him.

On December 11 last year, on Wishaw’s Station Road, at the junction with Caledonian Road, the 21-year-old was caught driving a car after consuming alcohol.

After having a breath test administered by police officers, Groome’s reading was found to be almost three times the legal drink-drive limit.

Groome also admitted driving the car without insurance and without a valid drivers licence as he had a provisional licence and thus did not have any supervision with him or L Plates.

A fourth charge that Groome took the car without the consent of the owner was dropped by The Crown.

Groome, of Mossneuk Park, was banned from driving for 18 months.

He was also fined a total of £350 - this was reduced from £525 on account of his guilty plea.

Groome’s conviction comes new figures revealed a total of 79 drivers were caught drink driving in Lanarkshire from December 2 to January 2.

The proportion of drivers stopped by police who were found to be over the limit during the festive period has risen, from 2.8 per cent to 3.3 per cent in a year.

Of the almost 19,000 drivers stopped during the 2016/17 festive period campaign, a total of 625 – or 1 in 30 – were over the limit, compared with 1 in 36 – during the same period in 2015/16.

Of the 625 detected, 46 were caught in the morning having been drinking the night before, up from 13 in 2015/16.