Moray man given unpaid work for taking and crashing woman’s car

An “under the influence” 38-year-old took a woman’s car keys as she slept before crashing her car.

Ben Main, from Kingsmills Elgin, was given community service and banned from driving for a year at Elgin Sheriff Court on Thursday.

Fiscal Depute David Morton told the court that the man had been socialising at a woman’s home on St Margaret’s Crescent, Lossiemouth, on August 28.

The court heard that Main “did not have permission to drive her vehicle”.

However, Mr Morton added: “She left the keys on display during a sleep.”

After waking up and going downstairs, the woman realised the vehicle had disappeared and - suspecting Main - tried to contact him.

However, at around about 2.30pm, witnesses saw the vehicle crash into parked vehicles on Orchard Road in Forres.

Mr Morton added it was “fairly obvious to the witnesses that Mr Main was under the influence of some substance or another”.

The court heard that Man was described as having “dilated pupils” with “slow movement” and did not share details with the owners of the two vehicles that he crashed into.

Main previously pleaded guilty to taking the woman’s car, to being unfit to drive through drink or drugs and to crashing into two parked cars.

Solicitor Grant Daglish, mitigating, said his client had been “open and honest with his memory of the incident” and pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity, while admitting that the 38-year-old’s could not remember much about that day.

Main is a “single man with no dependants,” the court heard, who has struggled with “drug dependency throughout most of his adult life”.

Mr Daglish added that the 38-year-old “always appears to be a hard working man”, and previously worked as a fisherman until the Covid-19 Pandemic reduced the amount of work available.

“He is a man that requires assistance,” the solicitor said.

Sheriff Olga Pasportnikov banned Main from driving for a year, and ordered him to complete 100 hours of unpaid work within six months.

He was also ordered to engage with drug and alcohol treatment services, during a 12 month period of social work supervision.