Refusing to give breath sample earns man driving ban, fine
A Hamilton Parish man was banned from the roads for a year after refusing a breath test.Matthew Davis, 28, denied a count of driving while impaired but pleaded guilty to failing to give police a sample of breath.Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday that at 10.35pm on February 20, police were travelling on Middle Road in Devonshire when they noticed the vehicle in front of them was driving in an erratic manner.The officers followed the vehicle, which was travelling of speeds of up to 80kph.After the vehicle nearly collided with a wall near Watlington Lane, the officers attempted to stop the driver.However the driver continued to drive along Middle Road until it reached Howards Supermarket.The driver, who police identified as Davis, told officers that his girlfriend had just yelled at him about returning her car.Asked if he had been drinking, Davis said “yes” and he was arrested on suspicion of impaired driving and taken to Hamilton Police Station.Appearing in Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Davis said the reason he didn’t stop the vehicle sooner was because it wasn’t safe to do so on that stretch of road.Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner fined Davis $1,000, banning him from driving all vehicles for a period of one year.