Bits of drink driver’s car hanging off after crash

Parts of a Perth man’s car were “hanging off and dragging along the ground”after he struck a parked car in Darnhall Drive.

Police were given a description of the damaged Peugeot and when they traced it in the city centre, the bonnet was“warm to the touch,”Perth Sheriff Court was told.

And when officers spoke to the driver, 63-year-old Charles

Sweeney, they could smell alcohol from him - and he failed a breath test.

Subsequent tests showed he had been driving with almost three times the legal booze limit.

A previous conviction for a similar offence led to him being put off the road for four years when he appeared for sentence this week.

Sweeney, of South William Street, also had a community payback order imposed as a

“direct alternative”to a jail term.

He will have to complete 165 hours of unpaid work and will be supervised for 12 months to help him“address his attitude towards drinking and driving”.

Noting that he had a similar conviction in 2002, which attracted a lengthy ban, Sheriff Gillian Wade told him:“You ought to have learned your lesson but that’s clearly not the case.”

He admitted driving his car with 62 microgrammes of alcohol on his breath on September 20 this year. The legal limit is 22.

But he had not guilty pleas accepted to further charges of failing to stop and give his name and address after colliding with the parked car - and failing to report the smash to police within 24 hours.

Depute fiscal Bill Kermode said that when police went to the accused’s home, he said he “knew”why police had come to his door.

The accused provided the reading at 8pm after completing the drink/driving procedure.

Solicitor Paul Ralph said Sweeney had since scrapped his car.

He had been visiting his mother, which he did daily, but she had given him a“tongue lashing”for driving while over the limit.

The ban was backdated to October 23 when he had an interim disqualification imposed.