Drink-driver had boy in his car

Sharp was on bail at the time of the offence

A man has been jailed for six months for driving with a three-year-old boy in his car while almost twice the legal drink-drive limit.

Alexander Sharp, 44, from Bonnybridge, was caught when concerned staff at a nursery smelled alcohol on his breath.

They called police, who found Sharp just yards from the school's gates.

At Falkirk Sheriff Court, Sharp pled guilty to driving with 62 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The limit is 35 microgrammes.

He committed the offence on 27 October last year.

Sharp also admitted breaching a bail order that he had been placed on less than a month earlier.

A not guilty plea to a further charge of exposing the three-year-old child in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering or injury to his health was accepted by the Crown.

'Beggars belief'

Two months of the six-month sentence were imposed for breaching bail conditions, and Sharp was also given a four-year driving ban.

Unemployed Sharp had previously been banned from the road for drinking and driving in 2005. He had a 16 month disqualification cut by a quarter after he passed a drink-drivers rehabilitation course.

Passing sentence for the latest offence, Sheriff Richard Macfarlane said: "You earned a discount on your previous disqualification by participating in and passing the rehabilitation of offenders test.

"Having participated in this scheme you would have thought you would have learned something from it.

"It is a very intensive course and certification at the end of it has to be earned.

"That being so, it beggars belief that you have found yourself in the middle of the afternoon with a breath alcohol level well over the maximum and while on bail from just 26 days earlier."