'You're lucky you didn't do more damage' – Inverness man crashes into garden wall after cocktail of drugs
A motorist who was under the influence of a cocktail of drugs drove straight out of a junction and into a garden wall on the opposite side of the carriageway.
The collision was filmed on private CCTV and shown to Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald, who described 64-year-old Donald Young's driving as "shocking behaviour".
Young, of Shore Street, Inverness admitted driving carelessly in Telford Road, Lochalsh Court and Shore Street on April 10, last year. He also pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told that the former plumber had methadone, a cocaine metabolite, morphine and etizolam in his blood which had been sent away for analysis by police.
Sheriff Macdonald fined him a total of £640 and banned him from driving for 19 months.
She said: "I don't know the levels of drugs in your blood and from viewing the video, I can see you were significantly under the influence of drugs. This was shocking behaviour and you are lucky you didn't do more damage."
The footage showed Young driving his Skoda Fabia with wipers on despite no rain along the narrow lane of Lochalsh Court and straight across Telford Road just seconds after a pick-up truck and another car had passed.
He then careered into a wall with a fence on top, tried to reverse a couple of times, straightened up and drove off with gears crunching.
That was the end of the video but fiscal depute Adele Gray told the sheriff that on Young's journey home he collided with a traffic island/pedestrian crossing and was reported as a possible drink-driver as witnesses saw him get out of his car.
She added: "The front axle of his car was split as a result of the impact."
Defence solicitor Patrick O'Dea said the car had been scrapped and his client did not intend to drive again.
"He has health difficulties and can't work so he turned to drugs," Mr O'Dea added.
