A Fife drug-driver’s reading of 32 times the legal limit for a cocaine metabolite was the highest a sheriff had seen.
Neil McPherson, 31, was discovered by police in the driver’s seat of his white Skoda in Dunfermline following an anonymous tip-off in the middle of the afternoon on January 22 last year.
McPherson appeared at the city’s sheriff court for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to driving a car with excess benzoylecgonine – the main metabolite for cocaine – in his blood (1,600mics/50).
Sheriff Nigel Cooke told him: “This is perhaps the highest reading I have ever seen.”
Prosecutor Catherine Stevenson told the court it was about 2.35pm on January 22 2025 when police were contacted anonymously by someone reporting their suspicions McPherson was under the influence of cocaine.
Officers found him in his car in Miller Street and he provided a roadside test which was positive for the Class A drug. He was arrested and taken to Kirkcaldy police station and a blood sample was provided.
Defence lawyer Freya Dow said her client recognises the reading is “extremely high”.
The solicitor said McPherson, of Cardenden, was “struggling quite severely” with addiction for months before the incident.
She said: “He had been consuming substances quite heavily. He has advised this was used as a way of coping with his mental health.”
Ms Dow said her client acknowledged his behaviour and the circumstances are “extremely shocking.”
The lawyer continued: “He fully accepts the gravity of this situation and the danger and harm he risked causing, not only to himself but other members of the public and road users, when he decided to get behind the wheel.”
She said McPherson has “not been partaking in consumption of any substances” since the incident and believes this was a “turning point for him.”
Ms Dow asked the court to consider his early guilty plea and submitted a non-custodial sentence could be imposed.
She added: “Mr McPherson advises he has made positive changes in his behaviour and if given that opportunity I believe he could turn things around for the better.”
Sheriff Cooke told him: “This is perhaps the highest reading I have ever seen. You were 32 times the limit and I am satisfied, that being the case, the threshold for custody is reached in the case.”
However, the sheriff said, having regard to the presentencing criminal justice social work report, there is an alternative to custody.
Sheriff Cooke told McPherson to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and placed him under offender supervision for a year as part of a community payback order.
The sheriff made clear this is a direct alternative to custody.
McPherson was banned from driving for two years.
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