Serial drink driver crashed car and fled from police

Kyle Harrower (25) of Smeaton Gardens, Kirkcaldy, had to be taken to hospital after the collision.

Harrower, a student at Fife College, admitted that on March 12 last year on The Path, Kirkcaldy, he drove a car when unfit to do so through drink or drugs.

Depute fiscal Dev Kapadia said the vehicle was owned by Harrower’s grandfather.

Police officers on patrol found the car after it had been in a collision and there was smoke coming out of it. The fire service attended to make the vehicle safe.

The depute went on: “The accused staggered out of the front passenger seat then ran off from the officers. He was chased and apprehended a short distance away.

“He was complaining of having a sore face, hip and shoulder.”

Police were unable to open the driver’s door because of damage to it. There were empty bottles of Buckfast, Bacardi and gin on the floor of the vehicle.

Defence solicitor Alan Jackson said: “He had been watching football with a friend and had been drinking. He left at midnight and had an accident on the steep hill as you leave Kirkcaldy to the east.

“He was kept in hospital after the accident.”

The court was told it was Harrower’s fourth drink-driving conviction in four years.

Sheriff Charles MacNair warned Harrower if he continued to offend he would be facing “very lengthy custodial sentences”.

However, on this occasion he imposed a community payback order with 270 hours of unpaid work and 12 months’ supervision.

Harrower was also banned from driving for four and a half years.

Last December, Harrower was jailed for four months. He was found to be more than three times over the limit when his car ran out of fuel on the A92 near Lochgelly.