Lorry driver said crashing 44-tonne truck 'after driving drunk for several hours' was 'oversight'

Michael Yeo, 32, from Portadown, Northern Ireland, was more than six times over the legal alcohol limit when he crashed his Volvo FH lorry near Kinross in Scotland

A lorry driver who crashed a 44-tonne truck while he was more than six times over the alcohol limit has been jailed.

Michael Yeo, 32, from Portadown, Northern Ireland, was at the wheel of a 2020 Volvo FH lorry when he crashed on the rural B996 Glenfarg to Bein Inn Road, near Kinross on August 7 this year. He had driven drunk across central Scotland for several hours, Perth Sheriff Court was told.

The level of alcohol in his breath was 134 mics with the legal limit is 22 mics and he admitted drink driving. He was sent to prison for 23 weeks and also banned from the road for more than six years. Yeo, who had previous drink drive convictions, had minimised the crime by calling it no more than an "oversight" and a "misjudgement", the court heard.

Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC said: "I note from the report that you have minimised the seriousness of driving such a large vehicle under the influence of alcohol. You described your actions as an oversight. I struggle to understand how being six times over the legal limit can be an oversight. You also used the expression that it was a misjudgement.

"I have great concerns about you thinking it was a misjudgement driving from 9am. The time narrated to me was 2pm in the afternoon. You picked up from haulage services in Boness and then crashed in this jurisdiction. It was after 3pm when you tested at over six times the legal limit.

"You have previously been convicted of drink driving in the UK in 2021 and in Ireland in 2016. It is clear to this court that you have learned nothing from your past actions. You present as a high risk of reoffending and you pose a significant risk of harm to the public. Because of your inability to recognise the significance of your behaviour, your terrible record, and to protect the public from the high risk you represent, there is no alternative to a custodial sentence."

She jailed Yeo for 23 weeks and disqualified him from driving for 78 months. Solicitor Billy Somerville, defending, said: "There is some concern about him minimising the seriousness of this matter. There's concern that none of the options available to the court have had any impact on reducing his potential reoffending.

"On this occasion it was only by luck that no-one was injured, or worse, killed. I have told him that if that had happened he would be in the High Court facing years in prison. He lost his employment as a result of this."