Newburgh taxi driver's 'incredible' raspberry defence for Perth drink-driving offenceA taxi driver who claimed he was teetotal and that he had been put over the legal limit for driving due to eating a tub of raspberry compote laced with alcohol was fined £800 and banned at Perth Sheriff Court.
Former Royal Marine Thomas Cook (69), of Whitecraig Road, Newburgh, had asked Sheriff Lindsay Foulis to take special reasons into account and not disqualify him from driving.
Cook — who said he had not drunk alcohol for 50 years — claimed he had eaten the raspberry compote, which had been given to him by a 94-year-old female friend.
He had previously told the court he felt unwell after consuming the berries, but not intoxicated.
He had previously admitted that on May 29 2010, in Edinburgh Road, Perth, he drove with excess alcohol — 83 mics (the limit is 35).
Sheriff Foulis told the court that to have the amount of alcohol police found in a breath test given to Cook, a person would have had to have drunk the equivalent of either two bottles of white wine or 10 pints of beer.
He cited depute fiscal Rebecca Kynaston's submission, when she said Cook did not tell the police officers he was teetotal — he said nothing at all apart from that the incident was "bloody stupid," which the officers took to mean he knew he should not have been driving.
Sheriff Foulis said, "We had a report from Dr Robert Anderson, a lecturer in forensic medicine at Glasgow University specialising in toxicology, which said Mr Cook consumed his container of raspberries, but to get to the level of alcohol found would be the equivalent of drinking two bottles of white wine.
"I would say that of 50% of the adult population who drink, if they had two bottles of wine they would know they were not fit to drive a car.
"I am not satisfied that there are special reasons not to impose a disqualification on Mr Cook.
"Firstly, I find it incredible that a man who is almost aged 70 and therefore has experience of life, could effectively consume the equivalent of two bottles of wine or 10 pints of beer in an hour and get in to a car, unaware that his ability to drive are totally unaffected.
"I find it incredible to believe that someone who had consumed that level of alcohol would not think they had done something wrong."
Cook said he had no idea how alcohol got in to the raspberry compote.
"This has been going on since last May," he said. "It is very upsetting. There has been lots of rumours, but now it is out in the open."
Sheriff Foulis also disqualifed him from driving for 18 months
http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/local/ ... ce-1.43814
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