Banned drink-driver’s bid to get licence back early is rejected

A woman who drove on a motorway while she was nearly seven times over the limit told a sheriff she should get her licence back early to pursue a career in nursing.

Louise Cassidy was banned from driving after police found her with her legs over the steering wheel on the M90’s southbound carriageway.

She was miles from where she thought she was, smelled strongly of alcohol, was unable to walk in a straight line and couldn’t speak without slurring.

Cassidy was back at Perth Sheriff Court to try to persuade a sheriff she should get her ban removed in time for her to start a nursing degree at Stirling University.

Cassidy, 34, has been accepted on to a mental health nursing course and wanted to be able to drive to a from the university to avoid a five-hour round trip by public transport.

Her solicitor Paul Ralph said Cassidy had turned her life around after being placed on a court Community Payback Order.

However, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis – who imposed a threeyear ban in 2017 – rejected the bid for the granting of early removal of disqualification.

He said: “You are going to consider me a heartless so-andso, but I am not going to grant the application.

“I can appreciate that the disqualification causes you considerable inconvenience but, in the nicest possible way, that is what the disqualification is meant to do.”

Cassidy, of Glenboig, Lanarkshire, admitted driving her Hyundai i10 on the M90 between Perth and Inverkeithing on January 19 2017 while her alcohol reading was 140 mics. The legal limit is 22 mics.