A GALASHIELS man who crashed his vehicle while more than four times the legal alcohol limit has been banned from the road for 12 months at Selkirk Sheriff Court.

Sixty-five-year-old Thomas Roseburgh pleaded guilty to charges of dangerous driving and driving while over the alcohol limit.

He admitted driving a van from the Woodcutter public house in Galashiels to the Melrose bypass on April 5 last year in a dangerous manner and failing to keep it under control.

Roseburgh also had an alcohol/urine reading of 292 – the legal limit being 67.

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The court heard he was spotted driving away from the public house and then it ended up being damaged 300 metres west of the Melrose bypass with members of the public managed to shunt it off the roadway. But the exact facts of the van’s collision were not known.

Defence lawyer Ed Hulme said the retired hotelier had been having a few drinks in the Woodcutter and should have got a taxi but decided to drive.

Roseburgh was banned on both charges with fines totalling £700 imposed along with a £40 victim surcharge.