A man caught at a roadside breath test checkpoint driving while almost twice the legal alcohol limit was fined $1,000 and banned from the roads yesterday.

Michael Russell, 61, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to drink driving.

The court heard that police stopped Russell at a checkpoint near Heron Bay in Warwick on November 28 last year.

He told officers that he had one beer before he got behind the wheel, but failed a roadside breath test and was arrested.

Russell was taken to Hamilton Police Station and tested again.

Russell was found to have 144.9 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80mg/100ml.

Senior magistrate Juan Wolffe ordered Russell, from Warwick, to pay the fine by the end of the day.

He also banned him from the roads for 18 months.

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