Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Post-bash crash driver avoids jail
A FOUR-TIMES convicted drink-driver, who caused tens of thousands of pounds of damage by crashing into a Carnoustie house after a wedding, has avoided imprisonment.
Simon Hart tried to drive his private-plated car home after boozing at the bash but “obliterated” a house on the corner of Tayside Street and Norries Road while travelling at double the speed limit.
Hart admitted drunkenly crashing into the vacant home, causing more than £47,000 of damage on April 17 last year.
He returned to the dock at Forfar Sheriff Court to be sentenced last week.
He was told the maximum sentence he faced was six months’ imprisonment but that would have to be reduced to four months due to his early plea so a sheriff said community service was more appropriate.
The court heard he has directly analogous convictions from 2002, 2007 and 2008.
Hart, 43, of South Esk Street in Montrose, had failed a roadside breath test, and a urine sample taken more than two and a half hours later showed an alcohol reading of almost three times the limit.
He admitted driving with excess alcohol and a not guilty plea to driving dangerously was accepted.
His solicitor Michael Boyd said: “He’d been at a wedding for several hours.
“He accepts that he’d consumed alcohol.
“He’d been drinking water as well – he had thought that he was fit to drive, he wasn’t aware that he was over the limit.”
Mr Boyd explained his client has alcohol issues which had been under control since Hart’s last analogous conviction in 2008.
Sentencing, Sheriff Derek Reekie said: “There’s nothing I can do to deal with the extensive damage to the property. The consequences of this were catastrophic and could have been more catastrophic.”
He said he was “just persuaded that the public interest is best served” with a community sentence.
As a direct alternative to jail, the sheriff imposed 200 hours of unpaid work to be completed in a year.
He banned Hart from driving for 40 months, to be reduced to 30 months if he completes a drinkdriving rehabilitation course.