A Banchory mum who was found covered in mud and scratches has been acquitted of drink-driving after her Land Rover crashed off a road and overturned in a ditch.
Police were searching for Pamela Farquhar when she arrived home at 3.10am looking dishevelled and smelling of alcohol but she told them she was not the one who crashed her car through a road sign.
Giving evidence at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, Mrs Farquhar admitted leaving her home at 2.15am to visit a friend’s house – but insisted she chose to walk through a forest rather than drive.
After a two-day trial, she was acquitted by Sheriff Morag Fraser on four charges, including driving while under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident.
Sheriff Fraser told the court she had “considered the totality of the evidence” in the case and felt she “didn’t have sufficient evidence” to convict Mrs Farquhar, 38.
Husband unable to explain whereabouts
Police constable Simon Anderson gave evidence stating that at around 2.43am on November 1 2020 he and another officer had investigated a call made by a device in the Land Rover reporting that an accident had occurred near the Hill of Banchory.
Pc Anderson said he arrived at the scene to find the car on its side in a ditch having suffered “extensive damage”.
Finding no one in the vehicle, Pc Anderson and other officers then carried out an extensive search of nearby fields to locate anyone who may have been thrown from the vehicle.
A registration check confirmed Pamela Farquhar was the owner so they went to her home in nearby Cherry Tree Road.
When they arrived – at around 3am – they discovered she wasn’t there and her husband was at a loss to explain where she’d gone.
Ten minutes later, while police were still at her home, Mrs Farquhar turned up “smelling of alcohol” and looking “dishevelled”.
“She had minor cuts to her face and her clothing had rips in it,” Pc Anderson said.
He added that Mrs Farquhar was covered in mud but was “adamant that she hadn’t driven the vehicle”.
Officers then arrested and breathalysed Mrs Farquhar, who was found to be more than twice the legal limit to drive.
Made her escape through the woods
During her own evidence, Pamela Farquhar told the court that her family had attended a party at a friend’s house earlier in the evening but they had returned home at around 12.15am.
She said she put her son to bed and “pottered around the house” before deciding to go back to her friend’s house at around 2.15am.
Mrs Farquhar said she walked 20 minutes through a forest to get there but, on arrival, discovered the party had ended and her friend had gone to bed.
She then claimed that she fell asleep on her friend’s back doorstep in the rain until she was awoken by police cars arriving at the address.
Fearing she would be caught breaching Covid-19 regulations, Mrs Farquhar said she made her escape into the woods, pushing through a bush in her friend’s garden.
She said she slipped in mud as she made her way back home, where she found police officers questioning her husband about her whereabouts.
‘Is it all just a big coincidence?’
Fiscal depute Jennnifer Pritchard quizzed Mrs Farquhar on whether it was “all just a big coincidence” that the car had been stolen and crashed on the same night she chose to “go to her friends at 2am and fall asleep on a step?”
“It must be,” she replied.
Mrs Farquhar was also asked how someone else might have accessed her home and gotten hold of her car keys, which were kept in a kitchen drawer.
She said she couldn’t be certain she had locked the back door earlier that evening.
However, Mrs Farquhar’s defence solicitor Lynn Bentley stated that her client’s injuries that night were not consistent with a serious accident.
Ms Bentley said: “She ended up with scratches to her face, but she had no bruising.
“Is that likely given the photographs of the accident and the fact that the airbag on the driver’s side didn’t deploy?”
Sheriff Fraser’s verdict found Mrs Farquhar not guilty to one charge of driving her car with excess alcohol in her system and of leaving the scene of an accident.
She further acquitted her of failing to report the accident and failing to identify the driver of the crashed Land Rover.
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