An Elgin man drove away from a party on a motorbike – despite being disqualified from driving.
Jaroslaw Soltys, 31, had been drinking at a friend’s house in Elgin when he decided to take the vehicle, on which he was not insured.
But police officers followed him – and found the bike lying in the middle of a road junction, with Soltys nearby.
He was taken to Elgin Police Station, where he refused to give two breath samples.
He told police: “I don’t want to.”
Defence agent Stephen Carty told Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday: “He has to accept he took a degree of alcohol.
“He clearly wasn’t thinking properly, and took the vehicle out on what he anticipated would be a very short distance. He accepts that he should not have taken the vehicle.”
He said the offence had taken place just months after Soltys was originally disqualified for a similar charge.
At an earlier court hearing, Soltys, of 32 Barlink Road, Elgin, admitted driving a vehicle without insurance on the B9103 Lossiemouth-Mulben road and A96 Inverness-Aberdeen road at Elgin on May 5 last year.
He also pleaded guilty to driving while banned from holding a licence, and failing to provide breath samples to officers at Elgin Police Station on the same date.
Sheriff David Hall told Soltys: “If you drive again while banned you will go into custody.”
He banned him from driving for three years and handed him a community payback order for 150 hours of unpaid work and alcohol counselling.