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| Raspberry defence fails !!!! http://www.taxi-driver.co.uk/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=16841 |
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| Author: | Sussex [ Tue May 24, 2011 5:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Raspberry defence fails !!!! |
'Teetotal' driver blamed tub of raspberries for putting him over alcohol limit A bowling club president who claimed raspberries made him drunk before he went out driving a taxi was banned from the road for 18 months. Thomas Cook blamed a large pot of raspberries for making him more than double the drink drive limit but a sheriff told him his excuse was "incredible". Former Royal Marine Cook said he had been teetotal for 50 years but had unwittingly eaten raspberries which were equivalent to ten pints of beer. However, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis dismissed Cook's bizarre claim and rejected his special reason for non-disqualification plea at Perth Sheriff Court. He banned Cook, of Whitecraigs Road, Cupar, Fife, and fined him £800. Sheriff Foulis said: "I find it virtually incredible that a man who is almost 70 and has the experience of life of someone that age can effectively consume the equivalent of two bottles of wine or ten pints of beer in an hour and get into a car unaware their ability to drive is affected. "I would have thought it was most unusual that if your account was correct, then when you were stopped by the police officers nothing was said to them. "I find it almost impossible to believe that someone consuming that amount of alcohol from any berry compote would not think 'there's something a bit funny about this'." Cook, who told the court he was a tee-total Mormon, said he had not touched alcohol since 1961 and was "shocked" when a breath test showed he was well over double the limit. Cook claimed the only way the alcohol could have got into his system was from a litre and a half tub of raspberries he had eaten shortly before driving his private hire taxi. The 69-year-old former Hibs player said the fruit - weighing a kilo and amounting to roughly 250 berries - must have contained alcohol he was unaware of at the time. The 19-stone private hire driver, who is president and secretary of Newburgh Bowling Club, told Perth Sheriff Court he ate a huge amount of raspberries before bed every night as part of his ongoing battle against cancer. Glasgow University toxicology expert Dr Robert Anderson told the court that the alcohol reading was equivalent to downing two bottles of white wine in around an hour. Dr Anderson added that he would expect anyone who had not drunk for a long time to have been "significantly impaired" by consuming that amount of alcohol. Cook said he had not noticed anything unusual about the raspberries when he was eating them and had gone out afterwards to drive a friend home in his own taxi. After being arrested, Cook took a leftover raspberry for analysis and was told it contained 11.5 per cent alcohol. The court was told that if he had eaten 1.5 litres it would have been equivalent to as much as ten pints of lager. Cook admitted drink driving in Edinburgh road, Perth, on May 29 last year. He gave a breath reading of 83 mcg, compared to the 35 mcg limit. |
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