A disqualified driver made a run for it, telling officers who stopped him: “Sorry, I’m off”.
Ryan McFarlane was spotted behind the wheel by an officer who knew he was banned from the roads.
He initially complied when they pulled him over before uttering the apology and bolting on foot.
It was an act his solicitor described as “abject stupidity”.
McFarlane, 29, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit charges of driving whilst disqualified and attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the incident on June 30 2022.
Fiscal depute David Morton told the court that it was around 9.30am when officers in a marked police car spotted McFarlane driving on the King Street section of the A96 in Nairn.
He said: “They identified the driver as Mr McFarlane, who one of the officers knew to be disqualified.
“They stopped the vehicle to speak to him, conversing with him about the fact that he was a disqualified driver.”
It was at this point, Mr Morton said, that McFarlane told the officers: “Sorry, I’m off”
“He has sprinted away from the officers,” Mr Morton added.
McFarlane was later traced and charged.
‘This was just stupidity’
Defence solicitor Marc Dickson told the court that his client’s behaviour represented “abject stupidity from start to finish”.
He added: “What Mr MacFarlane thought he was doing is hard to fathom.”
Mr Dickson told Sheriff Gary Aitken that McFarlane had since improved his situation and had “developed a sense of responsibility”.
He said: “He can’t explain why he behaved in this way – it is just abject stupidity.”
Sheriff Aitken said: “Having got in the car and been caught at it, it is not going to make it any better to run away.”
He placed McFarlane, of Bridge Street, Nairn, on a restriction of liberty order requiring him to stay at home between the hours of 8pm and 5am seven days a week for six months.
McFarlane was also further disqualified from driving for 15 months.
