A motoring expert has been sentenced to six months prison for driving while nearly four times over the alcohol limit.

Robert Douglas, who used to work for the Automobile Association, was also banned from driving for nine years.

A court heard he drove while he was already banned from driving.

The 53-year-old, who was described as having a number of qualifications in the motoring industry, was also ordered to re-sit the extended driving test before returning to the road.

Douglas, who was caught driving his mother's car, was told it was "tragic" that he had got himself into a position where he was being jailed for the first time in his 50s.

At Perth Sheriff Court, Douglas, of Broomfield Walk, Kirkintilloch, admitted driving in Perth on 8 January while he was nearly four times the limit.

He also admitted having no insurance and driving while he was banned, having been disqualified for two years in April last year in Glasgow.

Fiscal depute Carol Whyte told the court that Douglas was spotted by police officers at 10pm and was pulled over for checks. He was smelling strongly of alcohol and failed a roadside breath test.

Douglas told the police that he had been drinking less than five minutes before getting into his mother's Volkswagen Golf and he was arrested and detained.

Solicitor Paul Ralph, defending, said: "It was his mother's car and she was in hospital at the time. Sadly, he just appears to be a gentleman with a number of pressures in life who has started to abuse alcohol.

“He worked most of his life in the motor industry and has a number of qualifications in that field.”

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: "It is tragic when someone in his mid-50s, for want of a better phrase, succumbs to the pressures of life and that results in an alcohol problem."

He told Douglas that the high reading, coupled with the fact he was still subject to a ban imposed less than a year earlier, meant a prison sentence was inevitable.