Highland engineer denied Dragon Soup led to A82 drink-driving - saying alcohol reading was due to diabetes

A diabetic who was positive for alcohol in his breath in three police tests claimed he was over the limit because he exhaled a type of alcohol produced due to his illness.

Electronics engineer Ronald Moffat (74), of Castleview, Drumnadrochit told Inverness Sheriff Court that he had some experience in medical science and insisted that Police Scotland's intoximeter, used to determine if a person exceeds the 22mcgs of alcohol in breath, couldn't distinguish between liquor and the metabolically produced isopropyl alcohol in people with his condition.

But after a short trial before Sheriff Janys Scott KC, the judge didn't believe Moffat and found him guilty after trial of driving with excess alcohol near Borlum Farm on the evening of February 14, 2022. His reading was 57mcgs.

Moffat admitted he had drunk "two swigs or gulps" of Dragon Soup - a fermented fruit drink which has a medium alcohol and sugar content because it helped medically-induced shaking he was experiencing at the time.

"I had no sweets in the car and it would not have been safe for me to drive while shaking," he said.

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He denied taking alcohol earlier before driving a short distance to the local fish and chip shop, but confessed to drinking the night before.

Sheriff Scott heard that his reply to police on being charged was: "By the time I got home, which was two minutes away, the alcohol would not have been in my blood."

He explained that the reading was so high because the wine-like drink based on raspberries and strawberries, was still on his breath and in his mouth when the road-side breath test was conducted.

"Any alcohol would not have been in my bloodstream by the time I got home was what I meant," he added.

The sheriff did not believe that the combination of diabetically generated alcohol and Dragon Soup had contributed to his offence.

Two police witnesses who were dispatched to the A82 after a report of a suspected drink-driver, gave evidence detailing the procedures they carried out and at no time did Moffat bring up his diabetes or indicate that he had a health problem.

They admitted to defence solicitor Mathew Berlow that they could not remember if the training they did several years ago had dealt with diabetics and that they produced another type of alcohol in their breath.

PC Paul Whitehead, who has been in the force for 17 years, told the court: "The machine did not throw up any errors and there was no mention by him how his diabetes may affect the machine. We could then have gone to take urine or blood samples.

"It is the first time I have heard that diabetics should be treated differently."

Sheriff Scott fined Moffat £470 and banned him from driving for a year.

However, she certified him as suitable for the drink-driver rehabilitation scheme, which, if he successfully completes it, will earn him a three-month discount.