POLICE officers who heard a man slurring his words in a Milton service station discovered he was more than four times over the legal drink-drive limit.

Adam Cieresko, 48, of McAllister Road in Alexandria was spotted by the cops at the service station on Dumbarton Road on August 23.

He was appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court to be sentenced for the offence and for further offences of driving without a valid licence or insurance.

Procurator fiscal depute Claire Martin, prosecuting, outlined the incident to the court. She said: “It was 11.15pm and police officers on mobile patrol were present there on a separate matter. They saw the accused shouting at staff and he seemed to be slurring his words. They then made their way to the car park and saw the accused getting into the driver’s seat of a white Ford Fiesta.”

The engine of the car was running when police approached Cieresko and and said they suspected him of being under the influence of alcohol.

Cieresko was asked to undergo a roadside breath test but he struggled to blow into the device and was taken to a police station, where While at the police station it was discovered he had an alcohol breath reading of 103mg in 100ml of breath – the legal limit is 22mg of alcohol.

He was also found to be driving on a Polish driving licence which was no longer valid in the UK. Solicitor Tom Brown, defending Cieresko, told the court that his client had been drinking too much following the death of his father in July and had lost his job as a result of the incident.

He added: “It is a high reading but it could be dealt with by means of a community payback order with unpaid work.

"He intends to return to Poland but indicates that he would carry out the unpaid work as quickly as he could. He has not been drinking at all since then.”

Taking into account that Cieresko pleaded guilty at the earliest stage, Sheriff Simon Pender imposed a community payback order as a direct alternative to custody.

Cieresko was ordered to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work within nine months. He was also disqualified from driving for three years and fined a total of £250.