AN OFFSHORE welder from Stichill who drove while five times the legal alcohol limit after attending an agricultural show in Kelso has been banned from the road for 14 months at Jedburgh Sheriff Court.

Fifty-five-year-old Mervyn Orr pleaded guilty to driving with a breath/alcohol count of 117 microgrammes – the legal limit being 22 – on the B6364 road at Stichill on July 30.

Despite being followed by police who noted that full headlights were off, the court was told that Orr's partner, Jane mason, 40, from Town Yetholm, had tried to claim she had been driving the vehicle.

She pleaded guilty to a charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice and was fined £200 with a £10 Victim Surcharge.

Sheriff Peter Paterson said it was "stupidity of the highest order" but proceeded on the basis that she would never have succeeded in misleading the police as they had witnessed Orr emerging from the driver's seat of the car.

In addition to Orr's 14-month ban, he was fined £400 with a £20 Victim Surcharge.