A school janitor sent home for smelling of booze drove while more than four times the legal limit.
Kenneth Mullen caught the attention of staff at Aboyne Academy due to the smell of alcohol when he arrived for work at 10am.
The 51-year-old was challenged and confirmed he’d been “drinking heavily” the night before.
But when he was asked to leave for the day, Mullen jumped in his car and drove home – despite being over the limit.
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told Aberdeen Sheriff Court a member of staff at Aboyne Academy, where Mullen worked as a supervisory janitor, had noticed he smelled of alcohol at around 10am on November 13.
Cops smelled booze through Mullen’s car window
He was asked to leave for the day, however, when staff then noticed his car was no longer in the car park, police were contacted.
Officers then spotted Mullen turning into a car park on Woodside Road, Banchory, and discovered him inside the parked vehicle with the keys still in the ignition.
They spoke to him through the window and detected a “strong smell of alcohol”.
Accused told to go and get a coffee
Mullen, whose address was given in court papers as Woodside Road, Banchory, pled guilty to driving with 102 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath.
The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.
Defence agent Neil McRobert told the court: “There appears to be a genuine problem with alcohol and related issues with depression and the like.”
He added: “I think the advice given to him was to go away and have a coffee, and he unfortunately drove home.”
Mr McRobert said his client had been on a “self-imposed” driving ban since the incident and asked the court to defer sentence for a background report to be prepared.
Sheriff Margaret Hodge deferred sentence until August for reports and disqualified Mullen from driving in the interim period.