A Moray man has admitted causing the death of a friend by driving dangerously earlier this year on the A941 Craigellachie to Rothes road.
Offshore worker Murray Geddes appeared at the High Court in Edinburgh on Wednesday where he admitted causing the death of his childhood friend Graeme McKenzie.
Geddes, 37 and from Aberlour, told police that he drove his two-litre Audi S3 from a pub car park because he was “fed up waiting for a taxi”.
Mr Mckenzie, 38, died in the accident when he was thrown from the vehicle with a head injury that the court heard would have been “instantly fatal”.
The accident happened on May 16 when the court heard Geddes overtook another vehicle when it was unsafe to do so and subsequently lost control of the car which left the road.
Advocate Depute Andrew Brown QC told the court that Geddes already had a previous conviction for speeding in March when he was caught driving at 93mph on a 60mph zone of the A96 Aberdeen to Inverness road near Huntly.
The friends had been drinking in the Aberlour Hotel just a few miles from the scene of the accident. Witness Maureen Imray told the court that she became aware of the Audi driving close behind her: “The car just pulled out and passed me. I would say it was just like a speed demon.
“It was such a crazy piece of driving that the dust from the road surface was being thrown up into the air to about the height of the trees. I really do not know what possessed him to drive like that.”
The court was told that crash investigators describe how Geddes failed to maintain a proper line through a bend before his car hit a road sign, went into a ditch and hit a tree stump.
Sentence was deferred on Geddes to allow the preparation of a background report. He was remanded in custody.