A former Viking chief with the Up Helly Aa festival was caught driving while more than three and a half times the legal alcohol limit.
Stanley Manson was banned from driving for two years and fined £1,000 after admitting being behind the wheel while under the influence at Lerwick Sheriff Court yesterday.
The 57-year-old, of King Harald Street, Lerwick, was arrested after he was seen swerving back and forth across the centre of the road at the town’s North Lochside at about 12pm on August 11.
People driving behind his car reported Manson to the police after they saw him mount the kerb as he drove into the Clickimin Leisure Complex car park, before “stumbling and staggering” towards the building entrance when he climbed out of his vehicle.
Procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie told the court that Manson was breathalysed, but the reading was not taken until 1.20pm at Lerwick police station.
Mackenzie said the count was a result of drinking over the weekend, but he had not drunk that day when he had already been at work for three hours before heading for the Clickimin.
Defence agent Tommy Allan said Manson was a public-spirited man who had worked for LHD fish agent, where he is an office manager, for the past 42 years.
Allan said his client had never been in trouble with the law before and was “very disappointed in himself”.
Things had not been going well for Manson, he said, and as a result of this incident he had been to see a doctor and “procedures had been put in place” to deal with his problems.
He had raised money for charity, done a lot of public work and had spent 37 years as a coastguard volunteer.
However Sheriff Philip Mann accepted the defence argument that Manson, as a first time offender, was not the type of person the court should target with its powers to confiscate any vehicle involved in the commission of a crime.
He also noted that the car he was driving, which was valued between £8,000 and £10,000, belonged to his employers, even though it bore personalised number plates.
Sheriff Mann said: “This was an extremely high count and you posed a significant risk to members of the public.”
He said that Manson could reduce his ban by six months if he successfully completed a drink drivers alcohol awareness course.