Campaigners against date-rape drink-spiking are to help raise funds to get testing kits put in the hospital.

On Saturday morning a man was arrested after bar staff at Spring Gardens saw a male customer add something to his date's drink before giving it to her. The suspect is now on Police bail. The Bermuda Junior Service League (BJSL) began a poster campaign in July after reports that drugs were being slipped into drinks.

BJSL spokeswoman Deborah Titterton Narraway said the Spring Garden case was evidence the campaign was working as it was one of the venues which had displayed posters.

She said: “The second part of the campaign is that we are working towards providing the necessary testing kits needed to test victims for drink spiking.

“As Bermuda does not currently have the methods needed to test, there are no statistics and we are not able to prove the use of these drugs. Our aim is to work with the hospital and police to raise funds.”

The posters warn people not to leave drinks unattended and she said people were leaving drinks and ordering new ones after reading the messages in the toilets. She said drinks could be tested against three date rape drugs with matchbook kits available from Rock On in Hamilton.

Daniels murder suspects remanded

The two builders charged with the machete murder of Bermudian Greg Daniels in Jamaica appeared in court yesterday for mention.

Mr. Daniels, 47, was hacked to death in the grounds of his holiday home in Hanover parish on August 22 by two men who stole $4,000. The Hanover men, Orlando Anderson, and Mark Campbell, a 23-year-old mason from Brissett, have been remanded in custody pending their next appearance on October 14.

Ferry ran out of fuel

The cause of a ferry that broke down on the North Shore was blamed simply on the lack of gas.

Yesterday afternoon, the ferry Bermudian was travelling from St. George's to drop off passengers in Dockyard and then Hamilton when the boat broke down just off the North Shore at around 5.55 p.m.

“The simple fact is that the Bermudian was not adequately refuelled when it broke down. Obviously this is a very embarrassing situation and Francis Richardson was very straightforward with me about what's happened,” Transport Minister Dr. Ewart Brown said.

Today, director designate Francis Richardson will possibly be speaking with workers to find out more about why the ferry did not have enough fuel, Dr. Brown said.

‘Time bomb' fined

A Sandys man - called a ‘moving time bomb' by a magistrate - was fined almost $6,000 and banned from the roads for a year after he appeared in court on a string of traffic offences.

With both hands bandaged, severe road rash to one side of his face over his left eye and swelling, Howard Paynter, 22, stood stooped in Magistrates' Court, barely speaking, when he was asked to answer to each of the charges. Paynter was told he had to pay the $5,820 or face several weeks in jail after pleading guilty to a total of ten traffic violations, including speeding at 76 kilometres per hour.

When Magistrate Carlisle Greaves facetiously asked if Paynter had returned from the war in Iraq, the accused said he had been involved in a road accident while a passenger on a friend's bike.

All of the offences had been committed this year. Mr. Greaves said: “You are disqualified from driving auxiliaries and motorbikes for the next 12 months. That's good news for you - it might save your life. You are a moving time bomb.”

Prosecutor Shade Sabir asked that the magistrate consider a harsher penalty, other than a disqualification for 12 months.

She suggested that the sentence seemed very lenient, and said people caught drink driving for a second time had been jailed before. But Mr. Greaves said he had to be careful because the Island was mindful that many young men simply turned to a life of crime after being locked up. And he said previous commissions had found that too many young black males were “walking around with a piece of prison in them because of traffic.”

That was what he wanted to avoid, he said.

Esso City wants to sell beer

Residents will be able to buy beer at the 24 hour gas station in Hamilton if a licence application is approved by the liquor licensing board.

The application has sparked some concern from locals who worry that a permit, if granted, would send an inappropriate message at a time when the Island is trying to discourage drinking while driving.

Senator Raymond Tannock, who owns Esso City Automarket, told The Royal Gazette that he understood the public concern but he had applied for a licence to sell cases of beer only and not individual cold beers.

“What we are asking for is permission to sell beer by the case, not individual bottles of beer cold as we find in other locations. So we don't think we would have a problem with people coming to our location to buy beer,” Mr. Tannock explained.

Numerous customers had been requesting the service, he added. “We have been putting them off saying we're not going to do it. If they say no we'll just put it behind us and next time anyone comes in, we'll say we're not allowed.”