A drink-driver followed by another road user tried to convince officers that he was not the driver of the car, Magistrates’ Court has heard.

Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo was told that Tyshaon Rawlins, 33, was seen to swerve along Barry Road after he left Fort St Catherine in St George’s.

Another driver alerted police to Rawlins’s driving and trailed him through St George’s.

The driver observed Rawlins’s car cross the centre line of the road and force other vehicles to take evasive action.

Police later stopped the defendant outside Alexandra Battery and found Rawlins in the front passenger seat with no one else in the car. Rawlins told officers: “The driver just ran off.”

But the witness who followed Rawlins was still present and told police that no one had left the car.

She added that she knew the defendant and gave police his name and address.

Officers arrested Rawlins, of St George’s, on suspicion of drink-driving.

He told police: “I should’ve never gone to that wedding.”

The court heard Rawlins refused to give a breath sample for testing.

Rawlins was charged with refusal to give a breath test and driving while over the legal alcohol limit.

Rawlins admitted the drink-driving charge.

The incident happened last Saturday night.

Mr Tokunbo fined Rawlins $1,200 and banned him from the roads for 18 months.

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