A man spotted lying on the A96 refused to leave the road and had to be PAVA sprayed by police.
Traffic had to brake to avoid Joseph Morrison on the 40mph stretch of carriageway near the Sandown Road junction in Nairn.
When police attempted to move him off the road he resisted, causing them to deploy the incapacitant spray.
Morrison, 44, admitted charges of breach of the peace and assaulting an officer at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Fiscal depute Martina Eastwood told the court it was around 10.30pm on July 12 of this year that police received reports of a “man, heavily intoxicated, lying in the A96 carriageway”.
Traffic braked to avoid man in road
They then traced Mr Morrison who was “gesturing to passing traffic” in the carriageway of the A96 near the junction of Sandown Road – a 40mph speed limit.
“Traffic had to brake to avoid him,” Ms Eastwood told Sheriff Ian Cruickshank.
The officers shouted at Morrison and asked him to come off the carriageway, but he responded by sticking his finger up and telling them to “f*** off”, before running off in the centre of the carriageway.
One grabbed him by the clothing but he “forcefully resisted” and PAVA spray was used.
As he was handcuffed on the ground he spat on an officer’s leg telling them: “Have some of that then.”
‘Pretty embarrassing’
Solicitor David Patterson, for Morrison, said it was a “pretty embarrassing set of circumstances” which had led his client to the realisation that “he cannot drink to that extent” and prompted him to give up alcohol use entirely.
Mr Patterson said: “He thought behaviour such as this was well and truly in the past,” and added: “He is pretty embarrassed.”
Sheriff Cruickshank placed Morrison, of Woodlands Brae, Inverness, on a community payback order requiring him to complete 180 hours of unpaid work in the community.