A drink-driver was forced to call police on himself when he got lost in woodland after ditching his car following a Hogmanay hit-and-run.
Ewan Stevenson made the distress call on the morning of January 1 saying he was “lost in a woodland” and was “scared”.
It was only after officers had returned him to the campsite where he was staying – 18 miles away – that they discovered he had driven drunk to the spot and had collided with another car.
Stevenson, 28, from Aberdeen, pled guilty to charges of failing to stop and failing to report an accident as well as driving while unfit through drink or drugs when he appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Fiscal depute Emma MacEwan told the court that police had received a call from Stevenson just after 8am on New Year’s Day saying that he was “lost in a a woodland and was scared”.
Police found lost man smelling of alcohol
Officers found him near to Dell Road, Nethy Bridge, a short walk from the RSPB lodge, and said he smelled strongly of alcohol.
Stevenson told the police he was staying in a motorhome with friends at Loch Morlich, 18 miles away, but was unable to explain how he had come to be in the woods.
“The accused said last thing he remembered was being at the campsite,” Ms MacEwan told the court.
Officers then returned him to the campsite, where his sleeping friends said they had been unaware of his departure.
The resident of a neighbouring motorhome then informed officers that a car had left the site during the night and in so doing had collided with his vehicle.
‘Quite some Hogmanay’
Later that morning, the court heard, police received a report of a “hit and run” incident, which had left a vehicle with “extensive damage” at the RSPB reserve.
Some time after this another vehicle was found abandoned near the crash site, which was later found to belong to Stevenson.
Solicitor Ronnie Simpson said his client, a maintenance technician who has never been in trouble before, was “very embarrassed to find himself in this situation”.
He said: “He has ceased driving because of this incident, because of his own sense of shame.”
Mr Simpson said while the charge stated that Stevenson was “unfit through drink or drugs” it was only alcohol.
Sheriff Sara Matheson commented that the incident had constituted “quite some Hogmanay”.
Handing down a 12 month disqualification and an £840 fine, she told Stevenson, of Earnsheugh Road : “It is very fortunate that you didn’t cause serious injury to somebody or indeed death behaving like this.”
