A drunk driver who had previously killed two people when driving over the limit was jailed for 12 months yesterday.

Albert Stuart Nisbett, of East Gate Lane, Pembroke, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court to driving under the influence on July 20 of this year. As well as his jail sentence, the 54-year-old former taxi driver was also banned from driving all vehicles for five years.

Crown counsel Cindy Clarke told the court that Nisbett was stopped by Police on Curving Avenue at 6.50 a.m. near the Cake Shop. Officers noticed that Nisbett had a strong smell of alcohol on his breath and he was subsequently arrested. A breath analysis revealed that he had 103 millilitres of alcohol in 100 milligrams of blood. The legal limit being 80 millilitres of alcohol in 100 milligrams of blood.

Nisbett was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving following a collision in 1979 which resulted in the death of Donald Eugene Eve. For that offence he was jailed for three years. And in 1997 he was sentenced to a further two and a half years behind bars following a 1995 smash which resulted in the death of 30-year-old Azores native Antonio DeFrias. At the time he was driving with more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood.

Yesterday, after hearing of Nisbett's record, Acting Senior Magistrate Carlisle Greaves said: "Mister, you are in real trouble.

"The Supreme Court suggests a short sharp shock sentence for driving whilst impaired."

You have already killed two people at two different times and you are still driving while impaired.

"Mister, I think that you should get 12 months in jail. You have made me upset - you got three years for the first offence (for killing Mr. Eve) and two-and-a-half years for your second.

"They are going to have to cut off your hands, feet and head to stop you from drinking."

Mr. Greaves went on to say that he wished that he could disqualify Nisbett from driving permanently.

"I have hit him with everything I have," he said.

Following yesterday's sentencing Insp. Terry Spencer, who is the Island's top traffic Police officer, called for a change in legislation that would not allow drunken killers back onto Bermuda's roads.

"At the moment there is really nothing outside sending the person to prison who caused the death of another person when they were drunk driving," said Insp. Spencer.

"No laws are in place to prevent them from driving again - even if they are disqualified.

"Driving on Bermuda's roads should be a privilege and not a given."

Although Road and Safety Council chairman Joseph Froncioni was off the Island last night, he told The Royal Gazette last week that he thought that drunk driving should be made a criminal offence with harsher sentences. He also said that legislation needed to be changed to allow the Police to randomly stop drivers.

He cited that in most developed nations drinking and driving is a criminal offence dealt with in the harshest way.

Dr. Froncioni said: "We want to see drinking and driving made into a criminal offence here. Everyone caught should be treated harshly."

He also called for the Island to step up its drink driving campaign to make it as unacceptable as it was in the UK and Canada adding that a year off the road and a $1,000 fine was not enough to dissuade persistent drunks from driving.