A MOTORIST who claimed he had stopped drinking 16 hours previously was still found to be almost six times the legal alcohol limit when police came across him on a Borders road.

David Proudfoot, 37, had been drinking heavily at a golf weekend and had been heading home along the A7 at Ashkirk on the evening of Sunday, September 20, when he gave a reading of 131 microgrammes - the legal limit being 22.

Selkirk Sheriff Court was told Proudfoot had played 72 holes of golf over two days in warm weather and had been drinking "to the extreme" but had stopped drinking during the early hours of Sunday morning.

But on the Sunday evening at around 6pm - around 16 hours later - he still gave the reading of six times the legal alcohol limit.

Sheriff Peter Paterson expressed incredulity at the explanation and said he would be surprised if Proudfoot would "have been able to see the ball" during Sunday's round of golf due to the level of alcohol he had consumed.

Proudfoot, of Falcon Court, Edinburgh, was fined £1,000 and banned from driving for 16 months.