Thirty-five-year old Dennis Fairbairn, of Patience Avenue, Sandys Parish and Hyman Bartley, 42, of St. Johns Road, Pembroke were both fined $500 in Magistrates' Court for separate offences.

Fairbairn admitted the charge during the plea court session.

Crown counsel Veronica Daley noted that 3.97 grams of cannabis was discovered wrapped in a plastic twist in Fairbairn's front right pocket.

Police officers discovered the drugs when they arrested Fairbairn on August 20 on another matter.

According to Mrs. Daley, when officers questioned Fairbairn about the twist he told them "It's weed and it's mine''.

Fairbairn, who has previous convictions for cannabis and cocaine possession, apologised to the court before he was fined.

Bartley, who has served time in prison for previous drug convictions, at first denied the charge put to him. He later asked to change his plea to guilty.

Admitting possession of .4 grams of cannabis, Bartley then told Magistrate Archibald Warner: "I honestly don't know where the plant material came from, but I'm sorry about it.'' DRINK RUINS MAN'S CHRISTMAS CTS Drink ruins man's Christmas Drinking two beers has cost a 53-year-old man his livelihood for a year.

"I guess my Christmas is ruined,'' Eugene Thomas, of Whaling Hill Southampton, told Magistrates' Court yesterday as he was banned from driving all motor vehicles for a year.

Thomas, a heavy truck driver with Hunts Sanitation Limited, admitted driving while intoxicated.

He was insistent throughout his proceedings that he was in full control of his vehicle and that despite readings of his breath showing he had more than the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, he was in fact, not intoxicated.

Crown counsel Veronica Daley told the court that Thomas was involved in a two-vehicle accident at Scott's Hill Road in Sandys Parish on November 10 and that Police officers attending the scene discovered "his breath smelled strongly of intoxicants.

Thomas agreed to take the breathalyser test, the lowest reading of which was found to be 94 milligrams in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 100 milligrams in 100 millilitres of blood.

Pleading with Magistrate Archibald Warner not to take his heavy truck licence away, Thomas explained that he needed his licence in order to work.

But Mr. Warner explained that he has no discretionary powers on impaired driving and that legally as long as someone was over the limit, they were intoxicated.

In addition to the driving ban, Thomas was fined $300.

LATE NIGHT SHOPPING ADVISORY HAM TFC Late night shopping advisory Many of Hamilton's shops will remain open again until 9 p.m. tomorrow evening in recognition of the final run-up to Christmas.

But the Corporation of Hamilton has asked motorists not to park on Lower Reid or Queen Streets between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. on late-night shopping days, which take place every Friday until the last week before Christmas when it will be on the Thursday.

Corporation Secretary Roger Sherratt said: "I would like to remind motorists, and especially owners of motorcycles, to make sure they remove their vehicles from those two roads before 6 p.m.

"I know a lot of people don't mean to break the law and we don't want to be the Grinch who stole Christmas, but $50 parking tickets are expensive and we'd just like to try and avoid people getting them this year.'' Mr. Sherratt added that the only vehicle allowed on Queen Street on those evenings will be Hamilton's trolley train, which will be going around the city centre and picking up and dropping off people at the stop outside the Bermuda Library. He also said the train would make a special trip to Bull's Head Car Park at 9 p.m. on those evenings to give shop employees some transportation to their vehicles.

PARKED CAR'S STEREO, CDS STOLEN CRM Parked car's stereo, CDs stolen Several items were stolen from a car parked in Hamilton early Tuesday evening, the Police reported yesterday.

A man and woman said someone broke into their white Suzuki Fronte while it was parked on Union Street near Sparky's Garage.

Several items were removed including a Sony CD player, compact discs, a leather wallet, identification cards and various personal documents.

Police searched the area but none of the items were recovered.

THIEF STEALS FROM BIKE BASKET CRM Thief steals from bike basket A thief returned to the scene of the crime to steal from a man's bike two days in a row, the Police reported yesterday.

The man said he parked his livery cycle near the changing rooms at the Horseshoe Bay Beach parking lot on Monday evening.

He returned to find someone had entered the bike's storage compartment and removed a wallet from a jacket stored there.

The man said he parked his cycle in the same area on Tuesday evening and returned to find someone had tampered with the bike's Kryptonite lock and removed the jacket from the same compartment.