News / Lucky not to go to prison
A SHETLAND man with a serious drink problem was disqualified for six years and ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
Thirty five year old Callum Jarmson had previously admitted driving a car without the consent of its owner, while being disqualified and twice the legal limit.
The incident took place at Hazelbank, in Dunrossness on 29 June this year.
Defence solicitor Tommy Allan said his client appreciated the seriousness of his situation as he was in great danger of being sent to jail.
In mitigation, he said his client had got into the car in “the heat of the moment” after a dispute with his partner had escalated.
Jarmson had quickly realised his “stupidity”, stopped the car and left it, the solicitor told the court.
Jarmson, with an address at Jarrahgen, Whiteness, was now getting alcohol counselling, Allan said.
Sheriff Philip Mann told Jarmson that his main concern was to keep people safe, something that was difficult to achieve while “people like you drive while disqualified and over the limit”.
Banning him from driving until 2019 and putting him under supervision with a requirement to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work was “very much an alternative to a custodial sentence”, the sheriff said.
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