An Aviemore painter and decorator has been jailed for four months for road traffic offences, including his third drink driving conviction.
Eric Finlay, of Annside, appeared from custody at Inverness Sheriff Court and admitted being more than five times the legal alcohol limit after he collided with a local taxi.
The 55-year-old also pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention on September 3 on the village’s Grampian Road by driving on the wrong side of the road and colliding with another vehicle.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said the offences occurred at 10.30pm on Saturday when the driver of a minibus taxi saw a van which did not have any headlights on swerving across the road.
It crashed head-on into his taxi.
Defence solicitor Alison Foggo said Finlay had two previous convictions from 10 years ago and eight years ago.
She asked Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood to consider unpaid work in the community as an alternative to a prison sentence.
But the sheriff replied: “What alternative is there? He gets drunk, very drunk and then drives.
“How am I meant to deal with it? Why was he driving in the way he was, coming on for almost five times the legal limit.”
Finlay was also disqualified from driving for seven years and ordered to resit the extended driving test.