Butcher in crash avoids driving ban

A RENOWNED Capital butcher has avoided a driving ban after causing a head-on crash which made a woman’s hair fall out.

Alexander Crombie, whose family owns Crombie’s of Edinburgh, in Broughton Street, was driving on the wrong side of the road when he hit a pedestrian before ploughing into an oncoming car.

Perth Sheriff Court was told that one of the victims, Denise McMonaigle, had been injured and suffered stress-related hair loss.

Crombie, 72, told the court he had no real explanation or recollection about what happened.

The semi-retired butcher, of Claremont Road, previously admitted driving carelessly and in the wrong lane in Blairgowrie, Perthshire, on March 18.

Fiscal depute Robbie Brown said: “It’s not known why he was on the wrong side of the road. The only explanation offered at the time was that he had been dazzled by the sun. He had simply kept going.”

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said he was taking Crombie’s good driving record into account in not banning him, and instead imposed eight penalty points and fined him £500.