Two drink-drivers caught at roadside breath test checkpoints were banned from the road and fined yesterday.

Lydia Rawlins, 40, from Southampton, admitted refusal of a breath test after she was stopped on March 24 on South Shore Road near its junction with College Road in Paget. Magistrates’ Court heard officers noticed she had a woman passenger slumped over in her seat. Rawlins admitted that she had been drinking and told police: “I’m just taking her home.”

She failed a roadside breath test, which showed she had 125 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, more than 50 per cent over the legal limit of 80mg/100ml.

Rawlins refused to take another breath test at Hamilton Police Station. Bruce Swan, representing Rawlins, asked the court consider Rawlins for the DUI Court programme.

Magistrate Maxanne Anderson said the defendant was not a suitable candidate and had made a “bad choice”.

Natalino Pereira, 34, from St George’s, pleaded guilty to a drink driving charge. The court heard Pereira’s motorbike was pulled over on North Shore Road in Hamilton Parish near Shelly Bay on March 22.

Officers suspected he had been drinking and asked him to take a breath test, which he failed. A later test at Hamilton Police Station showed Pereira had 90mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood.

Ms Anderson fined Rawlins and Pereira $1,500 each and banned them from driving for 18 months.

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