Speeding driver inhaled laughing gas balloon at McDonald's drive-thru

A banned driver who inhaled laughing gas at the wheel of a car at a fast food drive-thru has been ordered to carry out 135 hours of unpaid work.

Thomas Forrest breathed in the sedative from a balloon while driving through McDonald’s in Raploch, Stirling.

Forrest, 24, then drove a one-year-old blue Mercedes C-class along nearby Drip Road “at such speed that it left the ground” going over a speedbump.

The incident occurred at around 7.30pm on December 16, 2023.

Stirling Sheriff Court was told on Wednesday that witnesses in a car behind Forrest’s called police.

The court heard the first thing they noticed was Forrest making “unusual” halts in the lane leading to the drive through.

Prosecutor Christa Lindsay said: “The witnesses repeatedly heard gas being released from a pressurised canister, and a McDonald’s worker observed the accused continuously consuming nitrous oxide from an inflated balloon.”

When Forrest saw that police had arrived, he accelerated away from them, reaching speeds of approximately 50mph on a stretch of Drip Road subject to traffic calming measures and a 20mph limit, all four wheels leaving the ground at one point as the Mercedes hit a speed bump.

Forrest then abandoned the car and made off on foot, pursued by police, also on foot.

A woman in the front passenger seat of the abandoned car identified Forrest as the driver.

Forrest, of Montrose, pleaded guilty to driving carelessly while inhaling nitrous oxide, driving while disqualified, and driving without insurance.

He had originally faced a charge of dangerous driving, but the Crown accepted his plea to the lesser charge of driving without due care and attention.

Solicitor Sandy Morrison, defending, asked the court not to jail his client, who, he said, was a working man from a “supportive” family.

He said: “I advised Mr Forrest and his family that this is a serious matter and certainly one where the court could well be considering a period in custody.”

The court heard Forrest had “a number of previous convictions” for driving offences, had already been disqualified twice, once on indictment, and still had two years’ disqualification to run from a previous case.

Summary sheriff Neil Kinnear banned him for 33 months, backdated to September, effectively adding a year to his existing ban.

He said he did not want to extend Forrest’s ban “excessively”.

He also placed him under social work supervision for 12 months, and ordered him to carry out 135 hours of unpaid work.

He said: “Clearly driving whilst taking nitrous oxide is extremely dangerous but it appears, from the [social work] reports I’ve read, that you do seem to have realised, with hindsight, how serious this was, so I take account of that.”