Impaired drivers banned from road after admitting guilt
Two St George’s men pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court after both were caught driving while impaired on May 14.Delano Burgess, a 32-year-old bartender, and Joao Manuel Botelho, a 54-year-old labourer, both admitted driving while impaired.According to Crown counsel Larissa Burgess, at around 4.05am that day officers were driving east on the Causeway when they noticed a motorcycle in front of them travelling at a high speed.Officers saw the vehicle, ridden by Burgess, swerve over into the westbound lane, nearly striking a wall on the opposite side of the road.The police forced Burgess to stop and, while speaking to him, Burgess admitted having three drinks over the course of the night, leading the officers to arrest him on suspicion of impaired driving.In a separate incident that day, Botelho was arrested along the same stretch of road.Ms Burgess told the court that at around 10.40pm, an off-duty officer was driving east on Blue Hole Hill when he noticed the car in front of him was being driven in an erratic manner.He contacted the police and followed the car, watching as it steered into the westbound lane, and onto the grass on the side of Kindley Field Road.Officers stopped the vehicle and spoke to the driver, who identified himself as Botelho.Botelho admitted to officer that he had “a few drinks” with his brother, and was arrested and taken to Southside Police Station to give a breath sample.Ms Burgess said the lowest recorded reading showed Botelho had 315mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, nearly four times the legal limit of 80mg.Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner fined both men $1,000 and banned them from driving all vehicles for one year.