OLYMPIC swimmer Dan Wallace has been banned from driving for a year and fined £600 after taking a chance to drive home after a lengthy drinking session with friends.
The silver medallist was still nearly two-and-a-half times the legal limit when stopped near his rented flat in Bridge of Allan, Stirlingshire at 3.15am, despite having stopped boozing hours before.
Wallace, 24, was behind the wheel of his leased Mercedes A180D Amg Line Executive when he was caught just a mile from Stirling University, where he trains.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard the incident happened in Queens Lane, Bridge of Allan, on June 1.
Prosecutor Laura Knox said: “Police officers stopped the vehicle in question in connection with a document check, and spoke to the accused, who was driving. They could smell alcohol and he was required to provide a specimen of breath.”
After failing a roadside breath test, Wallace was arrested and taken to Livingston Police Station, where he gave a sample of breath that proved on analysis to contained 54 microgrammes of alcohol in every 100 millilitres, 2.45 times the legal limit in Scotland, which is 22.
Wallace, originally from Edinburgh, pleaded guilty to drink driving.
Ewen Roy, defending, said: “He thought he was fit to drive. Clearly that was a significant error. He tells me the roads were very quiet. I understand there was nothing problematic at all with the manner of his driving.”
The Bridge of Allan incident was not Wallace’s first brush with the law. Three years ago, he faced the possibility of the axe from the Commonwealth Games team after being arrested in the US for urinating on a police car. He was dragged to the ground after trying to evade arrest before being handcuffed.
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