24-year-old jailed for taking car from Kelso house after drinking at party

McRae Fairbairn pleaded guilty to five offences committed following a party in Kelso during the early hours of August 10.

He pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner at the party after an approach he made to a woman was rejected.

Depute fiscal Anna Robertson said Fairbairn, of Robertson Drive in Edinburgh, then took a key for a car and drove off but was stopped by police on the outskirts of the town.

He was found to have a breath-alcohol reading of 49 microgrammes, the legal limit being 22, as well as having no insurance or driving licence.

Defence lawyer Ed Hulme said his client had been consuming alcohol with friend and had been told at the party in question that his mother, said to have walked out on him when he was 10, was now living in Coldstream and he’d decided he wanted to see her.

Mr Hulme said: “He decided to take a cousin’s car and go over to Coldstream and see her, but he only had a provisional licence and had been drinking. He should not have driven.”

Fairbairn was jailed for 120 days and banned from driving for 12 months.