Taxi Driver Online

Taxi firm owner caught behind wheel while swigging wine out of water bottle

The co-owner of a taxi firm has been banned from the road after being caught swigging wine behind the wheel.

Lynn Joss was nearly four times the legal alcohol limit when challenged by police in Banchory.

Officers had been tipped off after the 58-year-old was spotted decanting a bottle of white wine into a water bottle.

Joss lost her taxi licence as a result of the incident and has now also been banned from driving.

Fiscal depute Emma Petersen told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “The accused is the owner of the vehicle. She is also part owner of a local taxi company.

“Shortly before midday on June 28, police were contacted and informed the accused was seen in the vehicle pouring wine into a water bottle.”

Officers responding to the call stopped Joss on Ramsey Road in Banchory around 1pm.

They found Joss alone inside the vehicle with the water bottle containing “what looked like white wine” and noted a wine bottle in the footwell.

Joss admitted to officers that it was wine and that she had last taken a drink five minutes earlier.

She was swiftly arrested and a formal breath test was carried out at the police station.

Joss, of Monduff Road, Muchalls, pled guilty to driving with 80 microgrammes of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 22 microgrammes.

Defence agent John Hardie said his client had had no experience of the criminal justice system until she was the victim in a case a few years ago.

He said: “She found it extraordinarily stressful and during that time she developed an alcohol problem.

“She accepts she was dependent on alcohol.

“She tells me she hasn’t consumed any alcohol whatsoever since the date of this offence.

“She has had her taxi licence suspended of course and is now in receipt of job seeker’s allowance.”

Sheriff Gerard Sinclair said: “This is a high reading. It’s almost four times the limit.

“I hope this has been a wake-up call for you.

“It’s just fortunate it didn’t lead to anything more serious.”

He banned Joss from driving for 12 months and fined her £420.

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IDFIMH

The taxi/PH trade is really not the trade for anyone with a drink problem.

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IDFIMH

But you still get them I've known of quite a few locally over the years

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

It’s often the trade that cause drivers to drink to excess.

Working on your own, when it’s quiet and your not earning and having to deal with idiots, is enough to make most folks turn to booze.

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IDFIMH