A shot of white rum nearly landed a repeat drunk driver in prison yesterday.

Erold Morgan, 41 of Curving Avenue spent his birthday in Magistrates? Court yesterday when he pleaded guilty to impaired driving on Parliament Street on August 21.

Crown counsel Paula Tyndale said Morgan skidded out on a motorcycle turning west onto Reid Street.

But when two Police Officers ran to his aid they noticed a strong smell of intoxicants and his speech was slurred.

Morgan?s lowest breathalyser reading was 131 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80 milligrams in 100 millilitres of blood.

In May, 2005, Morgan was disqualified from driving all vehicles for 12 months after he was convicted of impaired driving.

?I only drank a shot of 151 white rum with my friend,? Morgan said. ?I did not think a motorcycle was a motor vehicle.?

Morgan had also only paid $200 of his $1,000 fine from May.

?You are extremely close to being sent to prison,? Acting Magistrate Juan Wolffe said. ?You are fined $2,000 and are disqualified from all vehicles ? whether it be a bike, car, unicycle or horse ? for three years.?

Morgan was also fined $250 for driving while disqualified at the same date and time.

A 19-year-old Devonshire girl was fined $500 in Magistrates? Court yesterday for contravening a domestic violence protection order against her ex-girlfriend.

The teenager ? who cannot be named for legal reasons ? admitted breaching the order but pleaded not guilty to unlawfully assaulting her ex-girlfriend on August 11.

?The defendant and the complainant were in a relationship for one year when the complainant decided to move on, but the defendant was not able to accept it,? Crown counsel Paula Tyndale said yesterday.

At 4.57 p.m. on Friday August 19, the 19-year-old went to her ex-girlfriend?s home but found it locked. She tried to get in by opening doors and windows and even tried to move an air conditioning unit, Ms Tyndale said.

The complainant called the Police and when they arrived they found the defendant at the door of the house.

Duty counsel Leo Mills said his client went to her ex-girlfriend?s home to collect some money.

?She invited her to the residence to collect the money but when she got there, the Police had arrived,? Mr. Mills said.

However, Ms Tyndale rejected this line of argument, saying the complainant had categorically denied owing the 19-year-old any money.

?She made no contact with the defendant,? Ms Tyndale asserted. ?In the statements there was a reference to owing $200 but the complainant denies this.?

Mr. Mills said the 19-year-old technically did breach the protection order by being found at her ex-girlfriend?s house. However, he asked the court to be lenient.

Acting Magistrate Juan Wolffe said the court needed to send a message that domestic violence orders are very serious and fined the girl $500.

Mr. Wolffe released the 19-year-old on $2,000 bail with one surety to appear for her unlawful assault trial on September 28.

Bail conditions include not going near her ex-girlfriend?s home or workplace.

A prisoner was sent back to Westgate for three months after pleading guilty to being found in the Spring Garden on Washington Lane while intending to commit a felony.

Abdullah H. Virgil, 37 of Happy Valley Road, Pembroke also pleaded guilty to stealing a bottle of Smirnoff vodka, rum punch and some Guinness beer from the Spring Garden at the same date and time.

Virgil had only been released from the Westgate Correctional Facility two weeks ago after he verbally and physically abused a Police Officer.

In Magistrates? Court yesterday Crown counsel Paula Tyndale said Police found Virgil hiding behind the bar of the Spring Garden at 5.05 a.m. on Saturday, August 20.

Virgil told Police he ?fell asleep? at the bar but Police had video footage of Virgil helping himself to a Guinness and a vodka martini after the bar had closed.

Virgil told Acting Magistrate Juan Wolffe he paid to enter the premises, was having a ?grand old time?, fell asleep under a table and when he awoke helped himself to the drinks because there was not any bartender on duty.

But Mr. Wolffe said he had a problem with his story, as Virgil had been convicted for 12 months imprisonment in April 2002 for breaking into Spring Garden and was handed down a further 18 month sentence in 2000 for breaking into the same bar.

?You have a problem with Spring Garden,? Mr. Wolffe said. ?The defendant seems to have a penchant for stealing from the Spring Garden. A sentence of three months in prison on each count to run concurrently is being lenient.?