A teenager paralysed from the chest down in a serious bike crash has appeared in court for drink driving.

Michael Cardoso was pulled over after patrol officers saw his specially modified hatchback car travel at high speed, veer onto the other side of the road and overtake on dangerous bends.

The teenager was stopped on Middle Road, Paget, at 1 a.m. on January 20, and officers noticed his eyes were glazed.

When asked how much he had been drinking, the defendant replied: ?Not enough.?

The court heard he also told them ?I do not care if I live or die? but Cardoso, defending himself, denied making the last comment.

And he said the ?not enough? remark was a light-hearted remark to an officer he knew.

The defendant, paralysed from the chest down but with use of his right arm after a serious bike crash outside the Ice Queen, Paget, in 2003, appeared in court yesterday in a wheelchair. He said he had started going to hospital in a bid to curb his drinking.

Cardoso, of Rosehill Road, Southampton, was fined $800 and banned from driving for one year after admitting drink driving on January 20.