A correctional officer was taken off the road for a year after Police officers found him asleep behind the wheel.

Sherun Zuill, 36, from Wellington Slip, St. George's, pleaded guilty to having care and control of a vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. According to Crown counsel Tawana Tannock, on May 18 Zuill was found by Police slumped in the driver's seat of his car, which was parked in a Kindley Field bus lay-by.

After several minutes of tapping and banging on the window, Zuill woke up and unwound the window, at which point the officers noticed his eyes were bloodshot and he smelled of alcohol. He admitted to officers that he had been drinking, saying: "I had a couple. I was out with friends."

The officers asked Zuill to step out of the vehicle, but found that he was unable to stand on his own. He later gave a breath sample at Hamilton Police Station, which revealed he had 148 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, almost double the legal limit of 80 milligrams.

In Magistrates' Court, Zuill said: "I didn't drive my car at all. I was driven there by a friend, and another friend was going to pick me up.

"The reason I was in the driver's seat is that I have received threats in the past, and I felt confident that if anything popped off, I could ride off."

Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner banned Zuill from driving all vehicles for one year, along with issuing ten demerit points and fining him $1,000.