A drunk driver who injured two young women by crashing into their bike has been jailed for a year.

Barry Lee, 33, was handed the mandatory minimum sentence for causing grievous bodily harm to Octavia Azzario, 20, while impaired by alcohol.

He also pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm to Sasha Swan, 20, through reckless driving.

According to Principal Crown Counsel Michael McColm, Lee reversed his borrowed station wagon out of a parking space near Cafe Cairo around midnight last July 7, straight into the path of an auxiliary cycle ridden by Ms Azzario.

She suffered road rash and tenderness to the coccyx region of her lower back.

Pillion passenger Ms Swan suffered road rash and a deep laceration to her right leg, which required 15 stitches to close and left her on crutches.

Speaking after the Supreme Court hearing, Ms Azzario said: "I'm glad that justice was served, and I hope it gets through to people that driving or riding drunk does have consequences.

"Even if you have done it before and haven't gotten caught, eventually you will. With every action, there is a reaction."

Ms Azzario, who works as a nurse assistant at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital said the crash has had a lasting impact on both herself and Ms Swan.

"I have had some serious back aches that eventually go away and my neck hurts every now and then. As for my passenger, she had a huge scar on her calf.

"I don't believe it will ever go away and she isn't confident about it at all.

"She always says to me when summer time comes around she wants to wear shorts but because of the scar she will always be self conscious about it," she explained. "I'm just glad that our case didn't take too long and that we weren't seriously injured. He put our life at risk, his, and others. This is a lesson that will hopefully be well learned."

Lee, of Morer Estate Road, Smith's, told Police after the crash that the bike "came out of nowhere".

A breath test showed him to be more than one-and-a-half times the drink-drive limit.

He admitted to consuming a Heineken beer at Elbow Beach Hotel and two rum swizzles at The Beach bar earlier that night, but said of the test result of 129 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood: "That machine is lying, I never drank that much in my life."

Mr. McColm told the court Lee has previous convictions for cannabis possession and driving without due care and attention.

He asked Puisne Judge Charles-Etta Simmons to jail him for the mandatory minimum term of one year, citing the prevalence of driving offences in Bermuda and the need to deter others.

Defence lawyer Mark Pettingill urged the judge to suspend the sentence, citing exceptional circumstances.

He described Lee is a live-in caregiver for his elderly parents who are in poor health, and explained that they would suffer without him.

He added that his client was willing to undergo alcohol and drug counselling.

Lee, who works for a crane company, told the judge: "I'm sorry. I'll do anything it takes to fix it besides going to Westgate. I'll pay fines, anything."

He apologised to the women and their families.

Jailing Lee and handing him a two-year driving ban, Mrs. Justice Simmons told him: "It's a sad fact of Bermuda today that people such as yourself do not think of the consequences before choosing to drink alcohol and drive a car or ride a bike."

The defendant's mother sobbed as he was led to the cells.

Mr. Pettingill commented after the case: "The message to the public is it doesn't matter who you are or what you do, if you drink and drive and cause any type of injury to anybody else, the law is that you have to go to jail.

"That's the minimum under the law and people should be aware of that."