Drink-driver leapt from car

Oct 24 2008 by Lisa Boyle, Ayrshire Post (main ed)

A DRINK-DRIVING soldier has escaped a jail term “by the narrowest of margins.”

John Yuill, 18, jumped out of the moving car he was driving during a police chase. And he had no licence when he got behind the wheel more than double the drink-drive limit. The car careered into a wall when the teenager jumped out.

This week, his defence lawyer said Yuill was aware he could go to jail.

Quinton Muir added: “He’s acutely aware of how serious a matter this is and he recognises this could have had a quite catastrophic effect.”

Yuill, a Private in the Scots Guards, was escorted to Ayr Sheriff Court by his supervising officer.

He admitted that on July 31 at North Shore Road in Troon he drove under the influence of alcohol and with no licence or insurance.

He also admitted a charge of dangerous driving by driving at excessive speed, with no headlights on, swerving onto the pavement, failing to stop when signalled by police and jumping out of the car while it was in motion whereby it collided with a road island, mounted the pavement and crashed into a wall.

Sentencing Yuill, who gave his address as Wellington Barracks in London, Sheriff Carol Cunninghame said that he would have been going to jail had it not been for the fact he was a first offender and has shown remorse.

Ordering him to carry out 240 hours of community service, fining him £330 and disqualifying him from driving for three years, Sheriff Cunninghame told Yuill he was escaping jail by the narrowest of margins.