School janitor disqualified for drink driving

A school janitor was fined and disqualified from driving for two years after police caught up with his car to find him with more than double the legal alcohol limit in his system at the weekend.

John MacKenzie, 42, of Dale Park, Dunrossness, was caught on the B9122 Boddam to Channerwick road at Spiggie on Saturday evening with 77 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath when the legal limit is 35 microgrammes.

Defence agent Tommy Allan said MacKenzie, who pleaded guilty to the offence, had told him he was “embarrassed, ashamed and felt he had let the community down”.

Because he had no prior convictions and had already spent two nights in the cells, Sheriff Graeme Napier reduced the fine he imposed from £500 to £350 and told MacKenzie – who works at Dunrossness Primary School – that he could reduce the period of his disqualification by six months if he successfully completed the Vernon Manfield drink drivers’ rehabilitation course.