A Hamilton Parish man who crashed through a wall on Harbour Road was sent to the DUI court treatment programme yesterday.

James Cooke, 27, pleaded guilty to driving a car in Paget while impaired by alcohol in an incident on March 13.

Magistrates’ Court heard that at 12.45am that day, officers received a report of a single- vehicle crash on Harbour Road near the junction with Keith Hall Road.

When they arrived on the scene, they found a car with one occupant had crashed through a roadside wall with two wheels hanging over a nearby cliff edge.

Asked by police what had happened, the driver, Cooke, said he could not remember.

Officers said Cooke smelled strongly of alcohol.

Cook was pulled from the vehicle by the Bermuda Fire and Rescue Service and taken to hospital after he complained of chest pains.

Later that morning, he was arrested on suspicion of impaired driving and agreed to provide breath samples, which he did at about 6.30am.

The tests revealed Cooke had 107 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood – above the legal limit of 80mg.

He subsequently told officers: “I needed this because I’m not going to stop.”

After he pleaded guilty, Cooke told the court that he had stopped drinking alcohol, with duty counsel Simone Smith-Bean arguing that he would be a suitable candidate for the DUI court treatment programme.

Magistrate Tyrone Chin disqualified Cooke from the road and referred the defendant to the treatment programme.