Scottish road traffic law specialist was simply trying to charge his phone — and keep warm
A two-year-qualified Scottish solicitor has convinced a judge that while he had curled up in an advocate’s gown in a parked car following a boozy party, he had no intention of driving.
Kristopher Buchanan was nearly five times over the legal alcohol limit when police in Hamilton near Glasgow found him slumped in a Fiat Punto and bundled in court dress.
According to a report in yesterday’s Mail Online, the judge heard that the car’s engine was running and its headlamps fired up.
But Buchanan (pictured below) — who trained and qualified at local firm Scullion Law and who now specialises in crime and road traffic law — convinced the sheriff hearing the case that driving was the last thing on his mind.
Instead, Buchanan’s successful defence ran, he was simply trying to charge his mobile phone and keep warm.
The solicitor — who graduated from Strathclyde University with a law degree five years ago — had started his evening at a Christmas party last year at Hamilton’s salubrious Palace nightclub. He had intended to go for a hangover-clearing game of park football the next morning and had arranged to stay at the home of a chum for some pre-match kip.
However, according to the newspaper, typical post-Crimbo bash confusion struck and the mate took a cab home without bothering to collect one of Hamilton’s brightest young legal minds.
So Buchanan — who, according to his firm’s website, “has a particular penchant for burgers” — pragmatically decided to curl up in one of the pool cars in the firm forecourt.
It is not clear whether all Scullion pool cares are kitted out with advocates’ gowns.