A court has heard how a driver aiming to head home from Penrith to an Eden Valley village was found intoxicated behind the wheel of a car in Gretna — around 40 miles from his house.
Police Scotland officers initially responded just before 2.45am on August 9 last year.
They were alerted to an intoxicated man in the driver’s seat of a Skoda Fabia on the B7076 just outside Gretna.
It was 19-year-old Luke Forster, of Somerwood Close, Long Marton, near Appleby.
The vehicle was causing an obstruction as it was half on the road and half on a grass verge, Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard today.
Cumbria police officers took over after it emerged the location was actually in their area.
Due to concern over the condition of Forster, he was taken to Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary.
An initial breath specimen revealed Forster was over the drink-drive limit.
A separate sample of blood showed 110 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal driving limit is 80mlg.
Forster admitted a drink-driving charge in court.
Defence solicitor Geoff Lockerbie, mitigating, said Forster accepted full responsibility for his wrongdoing.
“He was in Penrith on that evening for a works function and had too much to drink,” said Mr Lockerbie.
“He hadn’t planned to be driving home but the situation arose where he found himself with nobody who could give him a lift. Nobody he was with was going his way.
“Foolishly he decided to drive. He apologises profusely for that behaviour. It was totally out of character.
Passing sentence, deputy district judge Matthew Wallace observed that the blood sample had been given a number of hours after the incident began.
By acting the way he had, the judge told Forster: “You risk our own life as well as the lives of other people.”
“I appreciate you are a young man. Young men make mistakes,” added the judge. “But you have to learn from them.”
Forster was fined £240, ordered to pay court costs and banned from driving for 12 months.
He was offered the chance to take a drink-drive rehabilitation course which, if completed by a specified date, would reduce the disqualification by 12 weeks.
