Bo'ness man facing jail after being caught seven times the drink drive limit
A Bo'ness man who was caught at the wheel seven times the legal drink limit and was so inebriated he did not know what day of the week it was warned today (8th Jan) that he faced almost certain jail.
Garry Barkhouse, 48, had drunk a bottle-and-a-half of neat vodka in one afternoon, Falkirk Sheriff Court was told.
He was arrested at the wheel of his daughter's Vauxhall Astra in the town, after a call from a concerned member of the public who phoned in to say they had seen a car being driven by a drunk.
Traffic policeman Paul James said he and a colleague went to the scene of the siting, in Corbiehall, and saw Barkhouse drive slowly towards them and park.
PC James, 47, said he reached in through the open driver's window and turned off the engine and the sound system, which was playing loud music.
He said it was "immediately apparent" that the driver was heavily under the influence.
He said: "He was kind of slumped, slurring his words, and smelling of alcohol.
"He was quite incoherent about where he was.
"He told me he had fallen out with his partner and had been drinking heavily all weekend."
PC James's partner PC Gordon McCall, 48, added: "My colleague had to take hold of him under his arm and assist him to the patrol car because he was so unsteady.
"He said he had been out all weekend and he thought that Monday was still Sunday."
Barkhouse was taken to Falkirk police station and gave a breath sample that contained 157 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres, 7.13 times the legal limit, which is 22.
The incident happened on September 21st last year (2015) at around 4.30 pm.
Barkhouse, of Links Road, Bo'ness, denied drink-driving and claimed he had just got into the car to get some tobacco. He said the police were "lying" when they said they had seen it moving.
Finding him guilty after a brief summary trial, Sheriff Craig Caldwell said he had to weigh up "two competing versions" of evidence.
He said: "On the one hand I have the Crown case, from two sober and professional road policing officers with over 40 years experience between them.
"On the other hand I have an intoxicated, incoherent -- and incontinent -- individual who says he wasn't driving.
"I don't accept his evidence."
Sheriff Caldwell deferred sentence until February 2nd for background reports.
He told Barkhouse: "You were over seven times the legal limit. You should have been nowhere near a car, but that was a decision that you took, and it put other road users and pedestrians at very significant risk indeed.
"It is likely, depending on the terms of any report, that I will conclude that only a prison sentence is appropriate, given the level of alcohol you had consumed."