A man who “derives comfort” from drinking beer and listening to music in his car has been banned from driving.
Tomasz Sawicki’s television set was broken so he went out to his car to listen to tunes and have a can of Budweiser, Inverness Sheriff Court was told.
At a previous hearing, the court heard that Sawicki, 49, became abusive and aggressive with the officers and he also refused to give two breath samples.
Officers found Sawicki in the driver’s seat with a can of Budweiser and the keys in the vehicle when they arrived at Inverness’s Maple Drive on June 6, 2022.
Sawicki, now of Rowan Road, Inverness, admitted failing to provide specimens to establish if he was drunk in charge of the car and a charge of threatening behaviour and sentence was deferred for a background report.
Defence solicitor Marc Dickson said: “He accepts he has difficulties with alcohol and lives a solitary life.
‘He believed he had not done anything wrong’
“He derives comfort from listening to music and because his TV was broken, he developed a habit of going out to his car and listen there.
“He believed he had not done anything wrong and that was why he refused. The vehicle was disposed of some time ago.”
The lawyer added that his client expected to be banned from driving although it was at the court’s discretion “given the nature of his previous driving record”.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank disqualified Sawicki for 10 months and instructed him to take part in an Offender’s Awareness programme as part of the community payback order which was imposed an alternative to custody.
Sheriff Cruickshank added that a review of Sawicki’s progress would be done by the court on May 4.