A man seen staggering around an Aberdeen shop before purchasing a bottle of vodka and driving away later claimed to police that he had not had a drink until getting home.
Shopworkers and customers were alarmed when Michal Hrk, of Papermill Grove, paid a visit to a nearby grocery store at 9.30pm on Saturday, February 9.
They described him as “unsteady on his feet and smelling of alcohol”, and were left bemused when he started “mimicking” other shoppers.
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Fiscal depute, Anna Chisholm, yesterday told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that Hrk was “behaving in such a way as to give witnesses cause to believe he might be drunk”.
She added: “He was observed to leave the shop, enter a Skoda Octavia and drive away.
“Police were contacted and found his vehicle parked outside his home at about 10pm, and felt the brake discs to be warm at that time.
“When the accused answered the door, he was found smelling strongly of alcohol.”
The court heard that Hrk was taken to the police station at Kittybrewster, and an interpreter was enlisted to talk the Slovakian national through the drink-driving test procedure.
However, the hotel worker refused to go along with the process and he later admitted a charge of failing to provide specimens of breath “when needed to ascertain his ability to drive or the proportion of alcohol in his breath”.
Defence lawyer, Iain McGregor, said Hrk remains insistent that he did not drink any alcohol before entering the shop.
Mr McGregor said: “He says that he only consumed a quantity after driving home and that is why he refused to comply with the breath test.”
Sheriff Andrew Miller disqualified Hrk from driving for a year and fined him £300.