Kenneth Carey is banned for six years with concerns raised about mental health following a separate incident in January
Caber Coaches has lost a school bus contract after one of its directors was charged with being drunk while driving a vehicle full of schoolchildren for 20 miles, The Courier reported.
Perth and Kinross Council confirmed that the contract with Kenneth Carey, 56, was terminated immediately following his arrest last year on a drink-driving charge.
It emerged during his appearance at Perth Sheriff Court on Tuesday, April 9, that his company had previously been contracted to transport Breadalbane Academy pupils from their homes to Breadalbane Community Campus in Aberfeldy, in a contract worth £40,000 per year.
Carey was banned from driving for six years, after he admitted that, on June 21 last year he drove while under excessive influence of alcohol (105 mic). The legal limit is 35 mic.
He will have to sit the extended driving test after serving his ban.
Solicitor Paul Ralph, representing Carey, told the court the bus contract was lost after Carey was charged.
“The bus operator’s licence was lost and my client is no longer a director,” he said.
Mr Ralph told the court he hoped this incident would be a “wakeup call” for Carey but his client – who was treated as a missing person earlier this year – was later charged with a series of offences, including behaving in a threatening manner by standing on top of a bus and repeatedly shouting, uttering threats, banging on bus windows and waving a petrol can around, between January 23 and 24 at Birks View, Aberfeldy. These incidents were described by Mr Ralph as being akin to something out of 1970s comedy film National Lampoon’s Animal House.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis imposed a six-month compulsion order, a mental health disposal made by the court, for these charges and, as a result, admonished Carey. Carey is receiving treatment at Murray Royal Hospital in Perth.
A spokesperson for Perth and Kinross Council confirmed the contract, which began on August 19, 2008, was terminated on June 21, 2012, the day of the police involvement.
“The council’s public transport unit had not received any reports of Mr Carey drinking and driving prior to being apprehended by police at Breadalbane Academy,” he said.
“If we had known, we would have followed the allegation up as a matter of urgency and may have temporarily suspended Mr Carey’s authorisation to drive on the Perth and Kinross Council contracts until a full investigation had been concluded.”
