A drink-driving mum caught behind the wheel while more than three-and-a-half times the alcohol limit has been banned from the road.
Stacey Beaton, 38, was pulled over near Holm Bridge on the Inverness West Link on October 23, and when officers smelled alcohol they conducted a roadside breath test.
The test came back positive and Beaton was taken to the police station where further tests revealed her alcohol level to be 80 microgrammes per 100ml of breath – the legal limit is 22 microgrammes.
She appeared in the dock at Inverness Sheriff Court where she pled guilty to a single charge of drink-driving.
‘I’m disappointed in myself’
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court: “She cooperated fully with police and in reply to the caution and charge she said ‘I’m disappointed in myself’.”
Solicitor Cecily Kingston, representing Beaton, told the court her client, a mother of four, had been dealing with personal issues at the time of the offence.
She said: “The background is she had been going through a difficult separation and found it a particularly difficult time in her life.”
Ms Kingston added: “She is incredibly remorseful, she is embarrassed about her actions.
Sheriff Margaret Neilson disqualified Beaton, of Resaurie, Beauly from driving for 12 months with the option to take a drink drivers’ rehabilitation course, which would reduce her ban by three months.
She also fined her £420.
