A drink driver has been fined and banned from the road after being spotted parking his car “at excessive speed”.
Robert Lapinski, 47, was almost five times the legal alcohol limit when police traced him just over an hour after the incident on Walker Road in Torry on Sunday.
Fiscal depute Christy Ward told Aberdeen Sheriff Court at 4.20pm a witness left a nearby property and began to walk towards her car when she saw Lapinski’s black Renault Megane parking directly behind her vehicle.
She said: “She was of the opinion it was driving at excessive speed to be conducting a parking manoeuvre.”
On approaching the driver she noticed a “strong smell of alcohol” and that he was slurring his words. She recorded him on her mobile phone as he walked away.
She added: “It was noted empty cans of alcohol were within the vehicle.”
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Police were contacted and around 6pm the witness pointed out Lapinski to them, who attempted to “conceal himself behind parked vehicles”.
Lapinski, of no fixed abode, pled guilty to driving with 106 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath.
The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.
Defence agent Liam Mcallister said: “What his position has been is ‘yes, I consumed alcohol before driving, but after the driving there has been further consumption of alcohol’.
“We have the difficulty in quantifying these things. Given the very high reading it would have to be accepted by Mr Lapinski he was unfit at the time of driving.
“What I think is perhaps also important is his response to the allegation, ‘I didn’t drive it, I just backed it up a few centimetres’.
“We’re not dealing with a scenario where he’s driven a significant distance.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace ordered Lapinski to pay a fine of £700 and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.
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