Dangerous driver gets licence back
Caused horrific M9 collision
A cocaine dealer whose driving left a woman with life-changing injuries has been given his licence back.
Euan MacAndrew of Ochilmount, Bannockburn, had served little more than half of the four-year ban imposed on him following the accident.
His brand new Audi A3 S-line Tfsi ploughed into the rear of Kathleen Paterson’s Vauxhall Corsa.
Ms Paterson’s car was sent spinning down an embankment of the M9 near Stirling and she suffered a stroke as a result of the accident.
MacAndrew bought the Audi after inheriting a six-figure sum from his grandfather which he “blew on cars, clothing and drugs”.
He was jailed for 18 months and banned for four years in June 2016 after pleading guilty to causing injury by dangerous driving.
Now 27, MacAndrew was released from jail last year and this week Stirling Sheriff Court was told he had been offered a job with an energy company which was dependent on his driving licence being restored early.
His solicitor Frazer McCready said the fatherof-two had stayed away from drugs and alcohol since he left prison and had become “a pro-social member of the community”.
Mr McCready said: “He has completed an SQA course and taken steps to better himself and to become a proper, hardworking individual”.
He told Sheriff Wyllie Robertson: “You will recall from the background to the case the difficulties he had in relation to the abuse of both drugs and alcohol.
“This is a different individual to the man who appeared for sentencing and who committed this offence and has turned a corner in his life.”
Sheriff Robertson told MacAndrew: “On one view perhaps, in certain circumstances, the court may consider than it may be too early to consider restoring your driving licence.
“However, I am impressed by the fact that since your release from custody you have taken a variety of steps to better yourself.
“These cross a number of areas and I consider it is appropriate to allow you to now have your licence restored to you.”
Police did not object to the restoration but MacAndrew will have to resit his driving test before getting back behind the wheel.
Ms Paterson was 45 at the time of the incident in June 2014.
Her injuries included damage to a vertebral artery which brought on the stroke.
She was left able only to get about in a wheelchair or on crutches and unable to drive or even go shopping alone.
The collision took place on the M9 between junctions nine and eight while Ms Paterson was returning home from work.
Driving at about 65 to 70mph, she had just indicated to pull out to pass another car.
Other drivers described MacAndrew’s black Audi as being driven dangerously and its speed as “shocking”.
Prosecutor Ann Orr said: “Because of his speed, the accused was unable to slow sufficiently to avoid colliding with the rear of Mrs Paterson’s car, putting it into a spin.”
Ms Paterson’s car bounced off the central reservation, skidded to the nearside verge, rolled down an embankment, turned over several times and came to rest in a field.
She spent 11 days in hospital, 12 weeks in a collar, six months having physiotherapy, four months in rehab and over a year in the care of a top professor of neurology.
She she was left with poor balance, dizziness, headaches, and sleep apnoea.
MacAndrew had previous convictions for drinkdriving and speeding and in December 2014, six months after he injured Mrs Paterson, he was jailed for 10 months after pleading guilty to being concerned in the supply of cocaine.
Mr McCready said at the time that MacAndrew had developed an “out of control” drug habit after being left a sixfigure sum by his grandfather.
He added: “He effectively blew all that on cars, clothing and drugs.”
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