Junior lawyer acquitted of drink-driving after being slumped over wheel in advocates’ gown

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By Jonathan Ames on

Scottish road traffic law specialist was simply trying to charge his phone — and keep warm

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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.

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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.