A 20-year-old St. David's man was banned from the road for a year after he was caught drinking and driving.

Diego McAllen, of Texas Road, pleaded guilty to driving while impaired by alcohol on August 28.

Crown counsel Robert Welling said at 3.10 a.m. that day Police were on patrol in Hamilton when they saw McAllen ignore a traffic sign. The officers pulled him over on Bermudiana Road, but he refused to give them his name or address.

Police placed McAllen in the back of their car and, while driving him to the Hamilton Police Station, they noticed he smelled of alcohol. A breath test revealed he had 91 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, just over the legal limit of 80 milligrams.

In Magistrates' Court yesterday McAllen apologised and asked if Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner would allow him to continue riding his motorcycle. "I recently enrolled in Bermuda College so as well as work, I have to be in class at 8.30 a.m.," he said.

Mr. Warner responded: "What do you think of buses?"

Mr. Warner fined McAllen $1,000 and banned him from driving all vehicles for 12 months.