An offshore worker who crashed during a drunken 370-mile drive home from a football match has been banned from the road for four years.
Douglas Norrie was still almost three times over the limit when he crashed on the outskirts of Perth after setting off hours earlier from Liverpool.
But Norrie - who has a previous drink driving conviction - was allowed to walk free from court after persuading a sheriff he had not touched alcohol since the accident.
Perth Sheriff Court heard how Norrie set off from Liverpool while he was so drunk that by the time he lost control of the car in Tayside he was still almost three times over the limit.
The football supporter crashed his car on a motorway slip road on his way home from a drunken 750-mile round trip to see his team play.
Norrie missed the bus for the match so he decided to drive from his home in Cruden Bay to Liverpool to see former manager Kenny Dalglish's team draw 1-1 with Norwich City in the Premier League.
Norrie, 32, was on his way home afterwards and about to enter the Friarton Bridge - which has a 150 foot drop - when he lost control, hit an embankment and rolled before coming to rest blocking the slip road.
At Perth Sheriff Court, he admitted driving on the M90 on October 23 while almost three times over the legal limit for alcohol.
He was ordered to carry out 90 hours unpaid work. Fiscal depute Stuart Richardson said Norrie had set off from the north-east of Scotland in his own car after realising the coach had gone."
He had arranged to travel to Liverpool to watch a football match and the original plan was to travel down in a special coach laid on for the journey," he told the court.
"Unfortunately, he seems to have missed the coach and decided to drive to Liverpool in his own vehicle after the bus had gone.
He went to the match and decided to spend Saturday night in Liverpool before driving home.
"Clearly he had something to drink in Liverpool because he made it as far as the M90 just before Perth, at which point he crashed his car. There was no other vehicle involved.”
Solicitor Victoria Stronach, defending, said her client had not touched a drop of alcohol since the crash and was taking steps to address his problems.
She said he had been attending alcohol counselling and urged the court not to jail him as it would disrupt his "settled life".
Norrie was previously banned for 18 months in 2004 for another drink driving offence. Sheriff Robert McCreadie told Norrie a community payback order was appropriate because he was taking steps to tackle his drink problem and had behaved since the incident.
