An HGV driver has been banned from driving after being found drunk in charge of a friend’s car.
Police found John MacKenzie, 35, at the wheel of the vehicle at the side of the B970 Kingussie-Coylumbridge road, near Insh, on March 23, 2014.
Tests showed that he was twice the old drink drive limit.
MacKenzie, of 5 Old Street, Clydebank, and formerly of Inverness, previously admitted a single charge of being over the limit while in charge of a car.
He was disqualified from driving for two months at Inverness Sheriff Court yesterday.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson also fined him £200.
Fiscal depute Stewart MacIver told the court that police had discovered MacKenzie after a tip-off from a member of the public.
He said that officers arrived at the vehicle at around 8.30am to find MacKenzie “emerging from the driver’s seat” having “apparently been asleep within the vehicle”.
Defence agent Chris Munro said that MacKenzie had worked as an HGV delivery driver for an agency but his most recent contract had ended last week, meaning his client was now without employment.
Mr Munro added that his client was under a “great deal of emotional strain” when the incident happened as his sister had died in the weeks before the incident after a long battle with cancer.