A Southampton man who missed his impaired driving trial avoided being arrested on the resulting warrant by pleading guilty.Marco Lovell, 33, was scheduled to appear in Magistrates’ Court for trial at 9.30am yesterday, but was not present in the courtroom when his name was called.Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner issued a warrant for his arrest and the prosecution witnesses left, but around 15 minutes later Lovell entered the court.Explaining his tardiness, Lovell told the court that he had been taking his children to school, but Mr Warner said that this was not the first time Lovell had missed court appearances and ordering officers to execute the warrant.“This is not only contempt, but is also means a loss of time and money because those witnesses have to be paid,” Mr Warner said. “They have left and you have sauntered in. And this is not the first occasion.”As an officer began to remove the defendant from the courtroom, Lovell told the magistrate that he wanted to change his plea to guilty.The court heard that at around 3.45am on March 14, officers on mobile patrol on South Road in Paget noticed a car being driven in an erratic manner, swerving repeatedly over the middle line.The officers stopped the vehicle and spoke to Lovell, who was driving the vehicle, and noticed that his voice was slurred and he smelled strongly of alcohol.It was also learned that Lovell did not have a valid drivers licence.Lovell agreed to give the officers a breath sample, but once at the Hamilton Police Station, would not blow into the breathalyser, instead sucking and spitting into the device.Mr Warner fined Lovell $800 for driving while impaired, banning him from the road for a period of 12 months, and fined him a further $100 for driving without a licence.