Latvian doughnut

A LATVIAN fisherman working on a Shetland whitefish boat was banned from driving for 20 months after he pled guilty to performing a “doughnut” – spinning his van in a circle – on the harbourfront in Lerwick on 26 July.

Dennis Putilo, aged 33, of Lieraja, was seen by staff working on the nearby accommodation barge at Mair’s Quay at 3.30am and promptly called the police.

By the time they arrived Putilo was on board his vessel, Copious, and refused to disembark, saying it was too dangerous because he was so drunk.

Eventually he obeyed the police instructions and was promptly arrested after failing a breathalyser, but then he twice refused to provide a proper sample when he was taken to Lerwick police station.

“No doubt his thinking was he was significantly over the limit and it would be better for him not to comply than to provide a very high count,” procurator fiscal Duncan Mackenzie said.

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Defence agent Tommy Allan said Putilo had just finished a three month season of work and was returning home to his wife and two children for a month and had been out celebrating in the pub and carried on drinking on board his boat.

Allan said there was someone else in the vehicle and it was a public place where the road traffic laws applied, but there was no one else around due to the time of night.

Banning him and fining him £600, Sheriff Philip Mann told Putilo his actions could have caused significant danger not just to himself and his passenger, but to anyone who may have tried to recue them if they had gone off the pier and landed in the harbour.