A MOTORIST spotted drinking from a bottle while behind the wheel of his car has been banned from the road for more than four years after being caught drink-driving for the fourth time.

Alexander Innes was said to have been spotted drinking from a plastic bottle by a passer-by when he was travelling in his white Mercedes along Jim Bush Drive, Prestonpans.

The concerned witness telephoned the police and gave a description of the vehicle, and officers arrived at the scene soon after.

Fiscal depute Mark Keane told Edinburgh Sheriff Court that the witness saw 47-year-old Innes drinking from the bottle as he passed her in the Prestonpans street at about 9.30pm on May 13, 2022.

Officers on patrol eventually caught up with Innes at his home on the town’s Blink O’Forth, where he admitted driving the vehicle that evening.

He provided a positive breath test and, after he was arrested and charged, he told officers: “I did not consume alcohol in the car”.

The court heard that the breath test reading was 36mg of alcohol in 100ml of breath.

The legal limit is 22mg.

Innes pleaded guilty when he appeared at the city court on Friday.

He also admitted to committing the offence after being granted bail at the court on December 20, 2021.

Solicitor Hannah Ridgeway, representing Innes, said that her client had been “struggling mentally” at the time following the death of a close relative and “had turned to alcohol”.

She said that Innes was employed as a rigger and had “been sober for a lengthy period of time” and had made “positive changes in his health” since the incident.

Sheriff Gillian Sharp said she was aware that this was Innes’s fourth drink-driving conviction but acknowledged he had made “significant progress” since the offence took place.

Innes was banned from driving for 50 months and fined a total of £715.