A “chronic nuisance” on the road just missed serving jail time in Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Carlos Manuel Dos Santos Sousa, of Warwickshire Drive, Warwick, pleaded guilty to failure to have care and control of his vehicle due to an excess of alcohol on November 5, 2006.

Crown counsel Cindy Clarke told court that at 5 a.m. on November 5 Police attended Esso City Tigermarket, in Richmond Road, Hamilton, on an unrelated matter and approached a Blue Mitsubishi Colt car parked at the gas pump.

They found Sousa behind the wheel with the keys in the ignition and asked him if he had been drinking to which he replied: “Not quite enough.”

Police arrested him and took him to Hamilton Police station where a breathalyser recorded almost three times the amount legally allowed.

It was the 36-year-old’s third driving offence in three months.

In Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Sousa also pleaded guilty to two offences of impaired driving, which happened on March 2, 2007 and December 14, 2006.

At 11.30 a.m. on Friday, March 2 Sousa was in an accident with a motorcyclist who suffered an abrasion to his left leg and a sore back.

Police arrived to find Sousa sitting in his car and when they spoke to him noticed his breath smelled strongly of alcohol.

The pervious incident on December 14, 2006 happened at 12.25 a.m. when Police stopped Sousa after suspecting he had been drinking and smelled alcohol on his breath.

On Monday, Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner fined him $1,000 for both offences, banned him from the road for 24 months and remanded him in custody to appear in court yesterday to answer the third charge and face possible jail time.

Defence lawyer Peter Farge told court Sousa’s employer, Robert Longbottom, manager of A1 Supermarket, in Collector’s Hill, was willing to say that he was a good employee and was currently training to be an assistant manager.

Mr. Farge also explained that Sousa’s wife had left him earlier last year and he was finding it hard to deal with those issues.

Mr. Warner said: “But he has been caught three times recently and certainly that is indicative of him being a chronic nuisance.”

Mr. Warner then gave Sousa, for the third offence, a six month suspended sentence, fined him $2,000 and banned him from all vehicles for 36 months to run concurrent with the 24 months he received on Monday.