A BRITISH Gas employee had been banned from driving for a second time.

Michael Garry-Hunter said he had been to sleep for a couple of hours after drinking heavily and then picked his friend up after he got into an altercation.

Depute fiscal, Jennifer Graham, said the police first received an anonymous phone call from the public concerned about a party.

Later they received a second call about two males attempting to change a tyre of a vehicle when both of them appeared drunk.

Officers found a vehicle in Lochgelly and signalled for it to stop.

After smelling alcohol on the accused officers undertook a roadside breath test which read positive.

Garry-Hunter, 25, of Dunfermline Road, Crossgates, previously admitted that on July 1 on Bank Street, Lochgelly and elsewhere, he did drive a motor vehicle after consuming so much alcohol that the proportion of it in his breath was 57 microgramme of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath which exceeded the prescribed limit, namely 22 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath.

Defence solicitor, Gwen Haggerty, said: "He had been drinking elsewhere until the early hours of the morning.

"He had a couple of hours sleep and then received a call from a friend who had been in an altercation and asked him to pick him up.

"He did this without thinking."

Sheriff Charles Macnair said: "This was quite a high reading, two times over the limit and this is your second driving offence in 10 years."

Garry-Hunter was banned from driving for three years and received a £650 fine.