A SCOTTISH League footballer has been fined and banned for drinking and driving.
Twenty-three year-old Mark Nicolson, who is a semi-professional with Third Division side Elgin City, admitted at Dingwall Sheriff Court on Thursday driving while marginally over the drink-drive limit after a night out in December last year.
Nicolson, of Bayne Drive, Dingwall was seen by police at the wheel of his car without lights at 1.40am on the morning of December 22 and they decided to speak to him.
Depute Fiscal Stewart Maciver said a breath sample was taken at the time.
It was above the legal limit of 35 mcgs of alcohol per 100 mls of breath. But because the sample was below 50mcgs Nicolson was given the opportunity to give a blood sample. But that too was above the legal limit of 80mcgs.
Nicolson had a reading of 98 mcgs of alcohol per 100mls of blood.
His solicitor Aileen Macinnes said he was a semi-professional footballer with Elgin City earning £175 a week plus bonuses.
She told Sheriff C.B. McClory, Nicolson had been on a night out and parked at his friend’s house.
They went back to the house and Nicolson thought he was alright to drive.
She said he did need his licence to travel too and from training.
Sheriff McClory told Nicolson it was extremely unwise for him to take a chance and he would now pay for it not just with a court penalty but future increases in his insurance premium.
The Sheriff imposed a £300 fine and a 12 months disqualification but gave Nicolson the opportunity to participate in the drink driver rehabilitation course which would see the disqualification reduced to nine months.
