Man convicted of drunk-driving a drone in Sweden’s first case of its kind

A man has been convicted for drunk-driving a drone in what is thought to be the first case of its kind in Sweden.

The 55-year-old man was found guilty of flying a drone at a classic car week event in Rättvik, a town in Dalarna, central Sweden in July in a temporary no-fly zone.

Police came across the drone when they were flying their own drone to monitor the event.

When they found the spot where the drone was being controlled from, a man with a blood alcohol content of 0.69 parts alcohol per 1,000 parts blood admitted to flying the drone.

Under Swedish law, anything above 0.2 parts alcohol per 1,000 parts blood is punishable and 1.0 is a serious offence. Drink-driving laws are relatively strict in Sweden compared with other parts of Europe. In the UK the limit is 0.8 and in Spain, France and Belgium it is 0.5. In Romania and Hungary it is 0.

The man later claimed that he did not fly the drone under the influence, blaming a friend who was not present when police arrived.

He was fined 32,000 SEK (£2,341) to be paid across 80 days in daily fines of 400 SEK (£29).

It is understood to be the first case in Sweden in which a person has been prosecuted and convicted of drunkenness while flying a drone.

“I have not seen a case like this before,” prosecutor Jenny Holden Nyström told the broadcaster SVT. “I must say that I am satisfied with the verdict.”

Karin Hellmont, the district court president, said they applied the same punishment scale as they would for drink-driving to the drone case.

“It is an aircraft, even though it is flown by itself, it is controlled by someone down on the ground and can fall from a high height and injure someone,” she said.