A hospital orderly who committed multiple traffic violations and then claimed he was rushing to an emergency at work has been fined.

Carvel Wallace, 35, agreed with Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner that he should not use his job as a reason for breaching the rules of the road.

However, he claimed that authorities at the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital have paid his fines in the past – something that was refuted after the case by a spokeswoman for the institution.

According to court papers, Wallace was off the road due to three past speeding tickets when he was stopped by the Police in St. George's on October 12 – just three days after the most recent offence.

Checks revealed that he was banned from driving, and he was charged with driving while disqualified.

Pleading guilty at Magistrates' Court yesterday, Wallace told Mr. Warner that his job called him in and it was an emergency, although court papers show he initially told Police that he was driving because his wife was sick.

Mr. Warner threatened: "I'm going to lock you up. This is the third or fourth time you've been before me with this foolishness. I've explained that even if you're doing a job that demands you turn up to the hospital on an emergency, you can't get there by breaking the law – including speeding, including disqualified from driving by this court.

"Didn't I explain that to you on a previous occasion?"

Wallace, a Jamaican national residing in Battery Road, St. George's, agreed that he had and apologised, saying it would not happen again.

However, Mr. Warner went on: "What annoys me is I've taken time to explain this to you and the last thing I would want to do is put you in jail in these circumstances. You do an important job. It may well be me or my family that's in the hospital and you've got to fix up the emergency room, but that's not an excuse in these circumstances."

He then asked: "I hope the hospital is paying these fines for you?" with Wallace replying, "they do Sir", and indicating this happened on the last occasion.

Fining him $500 and handing him ten demerit points – which will extend his driving ban – Mr. Warner noted: "They can pay the fines for you but there's nothing much they can do about demerit points and the subsequent disqualification."

Although no information was given in court about Wallace's specific role at the hospital, and a Bermuda Hospitals Board spokeswoman refused to divulge the information, The Royal Gazette understands from a source that he is an orderly.

Asked if the hospital has paid his fines as he claimed, the spokeswoman responded: "While BHB's policy dictates that we do not comment on individual employees, BHB does not condone driving while disqualified or speeding, and we do not pay our employees' court-imposed fines that result from speeding or driving while disqualified."