Alcohol Abuse Expert Found Guilty Of Drink-Driving

HE WAS the government adviser on alcohol abuse who couldn’t say when. Paul Yates is used to lecturing on the dangers of drunkenness, but yesterday the academic heard a sheriff cast doubt on his testimony and so found him guilty of twice drink-driving.

The senior research fellow at the Scottish Addiction Studies Group claimed that he was not drunk while driving home, but later had secretly downed shots of whisky in his garden shed, with the result that he was over the limit when the police arrived at his door shortly afterwards.

However, the sheriff at Perth Sheriff Court dismissed his story, banned him from driving for three years and imposed a £1,500 fine.

Yates, nicknamed “Rowdy”, is based at the addiction studies group at Stirling University, and his solicitor, Virgil Crawford, yesterday commented on the irony of his employment. Mr Crawford said: “He holds senior positions in various organisations both nationally and internationally. Against that, he does find it ironic and regretful that he finds himself before the court for these offences.”

Yates, 57, claimed he had only drunk a small amount in the pub and had then “topped up” in the shed . However, a medical expert told the court that Yates would have needed to have downed three very large whiskies in minutes to achieve the reading he claimed. When police officers arrived at Yates’s home he told them at the time that he had taken a single swig of whisky from the bottle.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: “I have listened very carefully to all that has been said and I regret that I do not find your evidence convincing with regard to the alleged post-driving drinking.”

Yates was awaiting trial on that charge when he was caught again by officers suspicious about his mud-caked 4×4 vehicle. The police patrol spotted Yates driving near his home on 15 December last year.

They pulled him over for a roadside check because the mud was obscuring his registration plate and immediately noticed the strong smell of alcohol. Yates admitted driving his Vauxhall Frontera while approximately twice the legal limit. He continued to deny the earlier offence and told his trial at the sheriff court that he was not drunk at the wheel on 4 August, 2006.

On that occasion, Tayside Police were contacted by a passing taxi driver, who had seen Yates leaving a pub in Crieff and staggering across the road to his car. The taxi driver followed him for more than a mile. The court was told that Yates’s car was seen weaving from side to side, and officers went to his home and spoke to him an hour later.

He claimed he had downed “a half-and-a-half” in the pub before retiring to his shed and taking a swig of whisky from a bottle.

PROFILE

PAUL Yates is the author of several books on the effects of alcohol and drug addiction.

He is the executive director of the European Working Group on Drugs Oriented Research, and the vice-president of the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities. He also chairs the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ addictions advisory group and was made an MBE in 1994 for services to the prevention of drug misuse.

He has advised ministers on a variety of drug and alcohol issues.