Open bottles of liquor found in man’s car after crash

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A St George’s man found in a crashed car with bottles of alcohol was yesterday banned from the road for 18 months.

Officers responded to a report of a single-vehicle crash on Middle Road, Southampton, on the afternoon of December 10, Magistrates’ Court heard.

When they arrived on the scene they found a black car had struck a small wall, and was blocking both lanes of the road near the junction with Avocado Lane.

Darren Pitt, 36, was sitting in the driver’s seat, and smelled strongly of alcohol.

An open bottle of Woody’s brand alcoholic drink and a small, half-empty bottle of Dewar’s Scotch was found in the front of the car.

Asked if he had been drinking, Pitt did not respond.

He appeared in court yesterday in custody after missing his first court date and pleaded guilty to driving while impaired.

“I guess I have a problem. Every time I deal with certain situations I cope with it by having a few drinks.

“Perhaps on that day I shouldn’t have been drinking and driving,” he said.

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner noted that this was Pitt’s second conviction for drinking and driving in a single year.

He fined him $1,500 and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.

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