Teacher went drink-driving with teenage girls in her car

A MUSIC teacher faces losing her job after she drove on a motorway when she was more than four times the legal drink drive limit with two girls in the back of the car.

Linsey Aitken, 44, a classically trained cellist and folk musician, “took to a bottle of whisky” at home because she was stressed about her job, Stirling Sheriff Court heard yesterday.

The peripatetic Stirling Council primary school teacher then went for a drive, and was seen swerving between the lanes and straddling the centre lines of the M9. The court heard that motorists became so concerned they contacted police, who later stopped Aitken and found two girls, aged 13 and 15, in the back of her car.

Barbara Hughes, prosecuting, told the court Aitken’s car was first spotted swerving on the M9 between the Keir roundabout and the Craigforth interchange at about 6pm on 13 January.

The depute fiscal said: “Witnesses were of the opinion that the driver was drunk or unwell. A passenger in the car phoned the police.”

After Aitken left the motorway, police caught up with her when she stopped just off Stirling’s Dumbarton Road.

Aitken, of Drip Bridge, Stirling, admitted that on 13 January on the M9 she drove with 156 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit is 35mcg.

The prosecution accepted a not guilty plea that Aitken exposed the young teenage passengers to danger by carrying them as passengers in a motor vehicle when she was under the influence of alcohol. Graham Walker, representing Aitken, said she had been suffering from a depressive illness at the time of the offence.

He acknowledged, however, that the court would have “very serious concerns”, given that she had been driving with two teenage passengers at the time. He added that Aitken had been dealing with an issue relating to employment and was “particularly stressed” that day.

The court heard that initially Aitken had not been intending to drive at all on the day, but “in the haze of alcohol” and the state of mind she was in, she later decided to do so. Mr Walker added: “To say she deeply regrets that is an understatement.”

The court was also told that Aitken was “presently signed off” from her employment due to stress.

Sheriff William Gilchrist deferred sentence for reports to be prepared, and the matter was then adjourned until next month, with Aitken disqualified from driving in the interim.

The General Teaching Council for Scotland said it would automatically be notified of any criminal offence involving a registered teacher and disciplinary investigation would then follow.

Teachers on the register can be struck off if it is proved that they have put pupils in danger.

A Stirling Council spokeswoman declined to comment on the case.