A slater who drunkenly smashed his former employer’s van, which he claimed he stole for a joke, has been jailed for committing his forth drink-driving offence.
Alexander Leiper was locked up for four months yesterday at Aberdeen Sheriff Court after he admitted carrying out a string of new motoring offences on May 1 this year.
The court heard the 27-year-old, a former employee of AJ Donald Slaters, had been walking along Bedford Road in the city when he spotted their van sitting outside a house.
Representing Leiper, solicitor Bob Anderson said at the time his client had noticed the van and that the keys were still in the ignition.
Mr Anderson said as he was under the influence of alcohol he “stupidly” decided to drive it round the corner to hide it from his former colleagues as a joke.
However Leiper was disqualified from driving at the time having committed three previous drink-driving offences.
The court heard as Leiper started to drive the car he carelessly, while more than three times the legal limit, he crashed into the back of a blue Nissan 4×4.
Mr Anderson said his client then panicked and fled the scene, however the woman driving the Nissan continued to follow him as he drove around the city.
The court heard the woman soon lost track of Leiper and returned to Bedford Road to inform the workmen that their van had been involved in a crash.
The matter was reported to the police and they later found the van with Leiper still sitting behind the wheel. When officers carried out a breath test they discovered he had 119 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.
In total Leiper admitted carrying out five offences which included drink-driving, driving while disqualified, careless driving, leaving the scene of an accident without stopping and failing to identify the driver of a vehicle which had been involved in a crash.
Mr Anderson told the court that when Leiper is sober “it is almost impossible to find a nicer man”.
However he said his client had struggled with an alcohol addiction for a number of years.
Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood said that given this was the fourth time Leiper had driven with excess alcohol in his system he had no alternative then to send him to jail.
He also disqualified Leiper, of 27A Jute Street, Aberdeen, from driving for five years.