Drink-or-jail option for accused

[Nwicker60]

Don't sign pledge and you'll drink yourself to death - sheriff
A SHERIFF has set a young man with a drink problem a stiff test – no alcohol for two years!
Sheriff Andrew Berry took the drastic step in a bid to stop Francis McPhee drinking himself to death and warned him that prison is the only alternative if he falls off the wagon.
Under the unusual conduct order, the 24-year old will have to submit himself to intermittent breath-testing to ensure he his remaining t-total.
McPhee, of Macpherson Walk, Thurso, appeared for sentence on charges of having been drunk and incapable in the town in August and making threats to police officers about what he would do to them and their families.
His solicitor, Neil Wilson, said that when on remand and sober, the accused reflected on the damage he was doing to himself and desperately needed help to get his life back on track. Mr Wilson added that random breath could be made part of the recovery process.
Sheriff Berry told McPhee: “Drinking yourself to death may be inevitable if you don’t take the help available to you. The alternative is that the court simply gets fed up with your failure to comply with sentences and you go to prison for as long as possible.”
The conduct order means that McPhee will be under supervision for two years during which he will have to co-operate with the social work, police, and medical authorities.