A drink-driver who sneezed and then crashed his car walked home to get another vehicle so he could tow it back onto the road.
Farm worker Ian Simpson, 59, was more than three times the limit when he veered off the B967 Arbuthnott Road, near Inverbervie, and ended up down an embankment.
But Simpson made matters worse by walking home, having a large whisky, then returning to the scene in another car in a bid to pull the first one up the hill.
Depute fiscal Lynzi Souter told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “Police were contacted about 12.40am by a member of the public and told that a Ford Ka was off the road and was down an embankment on the B967.
“Police attended and traced the vehicle just off the road. Approximately 50 metres further along the road a silver Vauxhall Astra was stationary.
“The accused was sitting on the ground attempting to attach a tow rope to the vehicle.”
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Simpson, of Kinneff, Aberdeenshire, pled guilty to driving with 76 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 22microgrammes. He also admitted being in charge of another vehicle.
Defence agent Gail Goodfellow said her client is a dairyman for a local farm where he lives.
She added: “He was working the previous evening until 10pm. He returned home, had a bottle of beer and a fairly large whisky, and then unexpectedly he was called out to deal with an alarm going off on a milk tank.
“He was on the way home when he sneezed and the car went off the road into an embankment. The car was stuck. He walked home, had a large whisky, got in the other vehicle and drove back. When the police attended he was attempting to fix a tow with the intention of driving that car back home.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace deferred sentence until December for a social work report and disqualified Simpson from driving in the interim.
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