A serial drink-driver who was four times the limit while he drove a child to hospital narrowly dodged jail today.
David Roberts, 40, was arrested after his drunken condition alarmed medics at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital, Stirlingshire.
Prosecutor Michael Maguire told Falkirk Sheriff Court: "Staff at the hospital contacted the police to report that the accused had taken a 12-year-old boy to hospital by car and they believed he was drunk."
Officers then stopped Roberts' Vauxhall Zafira at the roundabout on Stirling Road, Larbert, outside the front of the hospital.
He admitted he had been drinking and he was arrested, while the child was taken home by police.
At Falkirk Police Station he gave a sample of urine that proved on analysis to contain 262 milligrammes of alcohol in ever 100 millilitres, more that 3.9 times the limit, which is 67.
The incident occurred at half past midnight on August 16th, 2020.
Roberts, of Castle Street, Clackmannan, pleaded guilty to drink-driving.
Defence solicitor Grazia Robertson said a criminal justice social enquiry report went into detail about how Roberts had "found himself in the position where he drove to hospital" with the boy.
Mrs Robertson said: "He acknowledges the position he put himself and others in, but his position is that this arose not from some careless disregard for the population at large, but because of the circumstances.
"He accepts his responsibility."
Sheriff Christopher Shead said he had considered jailing Roberts.
He said: "If he hadn't been drinking excessively he would presumably have made a rational decision and not endangered, himself, the community and - ironically - the child.
"He was at least four times the limit.
He sentenced Roberts - who has two previous convictions for drink-driving, as well as dangerous driving and driving while disqualified - to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and banned him from driving for 27 months.
