A drink-driver who crashed into a tree was given a lift home by a “Good Samaritan” before being traced by police.
Greg Lamb was spotted by a passer-by after crashing his car off the B999 Aberdeen to Potterton road in the early hours of Sunday, May 26.
The 21-year-old was found to be almost four times over the drink-drive limit when police performed a breath test on him later that morning.
Lamb, whose address was given as Laurel Lane in Bridge of Don, admitted being over the limit when he appeared at the city’s sheriff court yesterday.
Fiscal depute Gavin Letford told the court that Lamb was spotted by the side of the road at about 6am.
The other motorist pulled over and offered him the chance to sit in his car, assuming he had broken down.
But when Lamb got in he admitted he had crashed his own vehicle off the road.
When the passer-by looked over he could see the car, a white Mazda, had landed in a ditch.
Lamb, who smelled strongly of alcohol, then admitted he had been drinking in the hours before the crash and had decided to drive home.
The man then gave the accused a lift back to his brother’s home in Aberdeen before calling the police.
Officers found Lamb at about 8.30am, and took him to the nearest police station.
He was found to have 81 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath, when the legal limit is 22mcgs.
Defence agent Liam McAllister said Lamb had worked hard to get his driving licence and earn enough money to buy a car, and in “one fell swoop” through “catastrophic decision-making” had lost them both.
Mr McAllister said Lamb had experienced a difficult six months leading up to the incident, as his father had just got out of hospital following a heart attack, and he had consumed alcohol for the first time in a long time.
This had led him to make the “ridiculous decision” to drive him home drunk, before he crashed.
Mr McAllister added: “A Good Samaritan then spotted him and he was very honest and open with him.”
Lamb, who worked as a data controller, was “embarrassed and, more importantly, ashamed at his conduct”, Mr McAllister added.
Sheriff Mungo Bovey banned Lamb from driving for a year and fined him £500.