Three-year ban for Bower man guilty of drink-driving

A Bower man found guilty of driving while unfit through drink has been banned for three years.

Gary Pilkington was also fined £500 at Wick Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

The 43-year-old, of Thura Place, Bower, denied the charge but was found guilty after a trial last month. It was his second such offence.

Police officers who stopped Pilkington in Ormlie Road, Thurso on December 12, last year, said that his speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol.

Giving his verdict, on August 11, Sheriff Neil Wilson told Pilkington, who claimed he had only drunk a pint of lager, that his evidence was “unconvincing, self-serving and unimpressive” and he had no difficulty in finding him guilty.

Charges of failing to provide two samples of breath because of a medical condition were found not proven by the sheriff.