An Aberdeen drug-driver has been jailed after he stole a Deliveroo driver’s car and then crashed it into other vehicles.
Lee Smith, 37, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted a catalogue of drug-fuelled offences carried out during one night in December last year.
Smith, who has little memory of his criminal actions, believes he came across a car with its engine running and jumped into the driver’s seat and took off.
But he soon ploughed it into another vehicle on Anderson Drive, before reversing and colliding with another car as he fled the scene.
When police arrived, Smith admitted the car didn’t belong to him.
He was later found to be more than double the cocaine limit to drive and had a knife in his possession.
Owner chased stolen car
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told the court that at around 11am on December 16 last year, the owner of a black Vauxhall had parked the vehicle on Don Street, Aberdeen.
A short time later, he looked again and saw that his car was no longer there and was being driven in the direction of Great Northern Road.
He chased the vehicle down the street but it soon became lost from view.
At around 12.45pm, a motorist on Anderson Drive became aware of the car Smith was driving just before it collided with another vehicle.
The driver of the other vehicle approached Smith’s car, where he formed the opinion he was under the influence.
The witness took photographs of the damage to both cars before getting back into his own vehicle.
As he did so, he saw Smith reverse his car into another road user’s vehicle.
Smith then sped off southbound and turned onto Great Western Road.
More than double cocaine limit
“Constables who were on marked patrol nearby stopped and observed the damage to the witnesses’ vehicles,” Mr Middleton said.
“They drove onto Great Western Road where the accused’s vehicle was observed within a queue of traffic.
“The accused was removed from the driver’s seat and cautioned and arrested.
“He spontaneously remarked to the constables that he had taken the vehicle from Tillydrone because the keys were in it and that the car wasn’t his.
“The accused was thereafter required to provide a roadside drug test which returned positive for cocaine.”
When blood tested later, Smith had 27 microgrammes of cocaine per litre of blood in his system. The legal limit is 10mcg.
Police also found a lock-knife within his left jacket pocket.
In the dock, Smith pleaded guilty to one count of stealing a car and a second charge of driving it without due care or attention.
He also admitted a charge of driving without insurance, another charge of driving while under the influence of cocaine and a final count of being in possession of a knife.
Accused maintains car was running
Defence solicitor Laura Gracie told the court that at the time of these offences her client was “struggling with drug misuse” and had consumed both cocaine and valium.
“He tells me that when he woke up, he had a significant injury to his eye,” she said.
“Mr Smith had no idea what had happened to him.”
Ms Gracie said Smith had “always maintained that the car was running” when he stole it.
“He believes the driver was a Deliveroo driver who was making a delivery and Mr Smith jumped in and drove off,” Ms Gracie said.
Sheriff Ian Wallace told Smith that he had a “significant criminal record” which he had to take into account.
“Only a prison sentence is appropriate in the case,” the sheriff added.
Sheriff Miller sentenced Smith, of Auchinleck Crescent, Aberdeen, to 26 months in prison and disqualified him from driving for 25 months.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
