Mixing alcohol and the anti-depressant drug Valium can be dangerous - and expensive - a man discovered in Magistrates' Court yesterday.

Richard Thomas Pickett, 58, of Dunscombe Road, Warwick pleaded guilty yesterday to impaired driving.

Acting Magistrate Tyrone Chin was told by Crown counsel Charmaine Smith that Police arrived at the scene of an accident in Paget on November 20 to find Pickett's bike lying on the road.

The officers noticed that he was unsteady on his feet and he was asked if he had been drinking.

Pickett told the officers that he had been drinking, but that he should not have taken Valium as well.

He was transported to Hamilton Police station to be breath tested. His results were 89 millilitres of blood in 100 milligrams of blood.

Mr. Chin fined Pickett $1,000 and disqualified him from driving for 12 months.

In a separate case, Neville Cuthbert Tatem, 68, of Soundview Road in Somerset pleaded not guilty to driving while impaired on October 21.

He will be tried on February 20.