admitting to driving drunk for the fourth time in less than six months.

Sean Chasty, 32, pleaded guilty in Magistrates' Court to riding a motorcycle while impaired on February 27.

Crown counsel Larry Mussenden told Magistrate Edward King Police followed Chasty, of Wellington Slip Road, St. George's, who was travelling east on North Shore Road in Smith's, and pulled him over by the Palemetto Bay Hotel.

Mr. Mussenden said Police noted Chasty's breath smelled of alcohol, his speech slurred, and he was unsteady on his feet.

Mr. Mussenden told Mr. King that Chasty had a history of drunk driving.

"You can run but you can't hide,'' Mr. King said, referring to Chasty's failure to show up at court for March 10, when he was due to be charged.

"You appeared before me on the ninth (for a separate impaired charge) the day before you were to come back,'' Mr. King noted. "You asked me if I could deal with this one (the Feb. 27 incident). I told you no because I didn't have it before me.'' "You were convicted of the same offence in Oct. 1997 and the same offence twice in March,'' Mr. King told Chasty. "That's four times since Oct. 27.'' After another long pause he added: "You can be fined up to $4,000 or sent to prison for up to two years or both.

Chasty appealed that he was "trying to get it together. I've been sober for two weeks,'' he added.

"You were convicted on March 9 and you were fined $2,100 and disqualified from driving for three years,'' Mr. King responded. "And you were given a six-month sentence which I suspended for two years.'' Mr. King then banned Chasty from driving all motor vehicles for five years, which is an obligatory part of the sentence.

"And instead of a fine, I shall give you an 18-month imprisonment,'' he told Chasty, "because you have a one-year suspended prison sentence which I must activate.''