A ski instructor has been banned from the roads after being caught behind the wheel while more than four times the drink-drive limit.
Lewis Baldwin spent 14 months working at the Ardenaiseig Hotel, Kilchrenan and had just handed in his notice so he could spend the winter working in Canada when he drove his car off the road.
At Oban Sheriff Court yesterday, the 23-year-old admitted the drink-driving charge and possessing cannabis at his staff-quarters caravan at the hotel on September 27.
Procurator fiscal David McDonald said a 999 call was made at 3.20am that morning when Baldwin said he had crashed his car and was trapped: “He said his car had left the road and he could not give the exact location.”
After “an extensive search” of the area Baldwin’s empty car was found off the road leading to the luxury hotel.
The fiscal said Edwards was found at the caravan at 6.30am, a breath-test proved positive and a reading at Oban Police Station at 8am was 102 microgrammes in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.
Mr McDonald added there was a strong smell of cannabis within the caravan and officers found two dried-out cannabis plants.
Baldwin’s defence agent Laura McManus said he had been working at the hotel for 14 months and saving to go to Canada, and that the cannabis plants had been for his own personal use, had been harvested and were of no value.
Sheriff Ruth Anderson fined first offender Baldwin, of Gillingham, £500 and disqualified him from driving for 30 months.