KPMG managing partner Stephen Green drunk-drove recklessly from Hamilton to Warwick as anti-drunk driving campaigner Anthony Santucci chased after him the night before Cup Match, a court heard.

Onlookers screamed as Green's car swerved all over the road before it apparently smashed into a wall on Harbour Road, Magistrates' Court was told yesterday.

Green — more than three times over the drunk-drive limit — continued driving after the crash, despite damage to his new Peugeot, with Mr. Santucci reporting the car's bumper in the middle of the road, the sound of screeching metal and smell of burning rubber.

The offender finally ground to a halt near Belmont Hills in Warwick and, according to Mr. Santucci, then tried but failed to get his vehicle restarted.

Mr. Santucci called Police, who arrested Green and found him to have 265 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of his blood, against a legal limit of 80 milligrams.

Yesterday, 45-year-old Green, of Hamptons Court, Southampton, admitted the offence, telling Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner: "There's not a lot to say. I apologise, I'm embarrassed."

Mr. Warner fined him $1,000, disqualified him from driving for 12 months and awarded ten demerit points against his licence.

After the hearing, Mr. Santucci — chairman of the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention — told The Royal Gazette he had spotted a car being driven dangerously in Hamilton at about 9 p.m. on Wednesday, July 30.

He said he decided to pursue the vehicle in his Daihatsu so he could encourage the driver to stop, but was unable to keep up with him.

"He was all over the road. I thought: 'This guy is going to kill someone. Let's just follow him to see what happens'," Mr. Santucci said.

"Somewhere along Harbour Road, I saw two girls pull over screaming at him but he carried on. Then there was the wall. All I saw was rocks in the street.

"Two hundred metres later, the front bumper of his car was in the road and I had to drive round it. Up the hill, I saw a car parked."

During yesterday's hearing, Senior Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney told the court Mr. Santucci's account.

Mr. Santucci told this newspaper of the dangers of drunk-driving and criticised Green for failing to set a good example as the head of a major chartered accountants group.

"It shows a lack of responsibility on his part, not just for himself but for other people," he said. "He got lucky quite frankly. If he had hit the two girls driving on their bikes, it would have been a different set of circumstances.

"I would simply say don't drink and drive no matter who you are. We have a culture of alcohol in our community.

"People think it's OK to drink so OK to drink and drive. To say it's an epidemic would not be an overstatement of the fact."