Drink-driver abandoned car on 'pitch dark' A835 with no lights

Press and Journal

03-05-2025

A drink-driver who abandoned his car on the 'pitch dark' A835 with no lights has been jailed.
When Joseph Stewart's Audi A4 broke down, he left it in the middle of the carriageway, with no lights on, despite it being 'pitch dark' outside.
When Stewart was traced, tests established that he had been over the drink-driving limit at the time.
Stewart, 26, appeared via videolink from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit charges of drink-driving and leaving the vehicle in a dangerous position.
Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told the court that it was around 6.40pm on March 1 this year when two police motorcyclists came upon Stewart's car in the middle of a 'live lane' near Maryburgh on the A835.
The fiscal depute said the car – which had no lights on despite it being 'pitch dark' at the time – presented a 'risk of road users potentially colliding into it'.
The officers checked the vehicle and found it unlocked, with the keys in the centre console.
Stewart was subsequently identified as having been the driver and traced.
A breath alcohol test revealed him to be more than twice the legal drink drive limit with 56 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath – the legal limit being 22 microgrammes.
Solicitor Roger Webb, for Stewart, told the court that this was his client's first driving offence.
He said: 'He realises that he has messed his own life up by going into Inverness for a drink with his employer that day and then driving back.'
The defence agent explained that the clutch had 'burned out' on the vehicle, leading to Stewart's decision to abandon the car.
'He is aware of what he has done,' Mr Webb said.
Sheriff Gary Aitken fined Stewart £600. No time to pay was sought and the alternative of 28 days in prison was imposed.