incapable in Hamilton town centre.

Before sentencing 45-year-old David Sousa, Magistrate Edward King explained that the prison term was not meant as a punishment but a chance for him to get his life back on track.

The court heard how Police discovered Sousa asleep outside the Harbour Light Salvation Army centre on King Street on Thursday afternoon. After the officers woke him up they realised that his speech was slurred and his eyes were glazed.

Prosecutor Charmaine Smith said: "Sousa attempted to walk away but was unable to do so and lost his step and fell on several occasions.'' Sousa, who was convicted of the same offence in May, told Police that he had had "a few too many drinks'' but had also not eaten and was very tired. He was arrested and detained at Hamilton Police Station. In court Sousa claimed that he suffered from blackouts and confessed that he also had a drinking problem. He said that he went to the Salvation Army centre looking for help but was not allowed in.

"I am trying to get into a programme to stop drinking but it's very hard,'' he said.

Sentencing Sousa, Mr. King said: "This is sad, so sad. Sometimes you have to do things to draw attention to your plight. If you are being murdered or drowning and you don't shout for help no one will come to help you. Sometimes you have to make a noise to get what you want. If you send these people to prison they still have to come out and come back to the same situation.

"We have the means to build a place where these people could sleep and make them work keeping it clean so they had something to do and get some meals at the end of the day -- we need to have a prison outside prison without bars and without walls.

"I am going to sentence you but it's not intended as a punishment but to help you. This is a sad case because this man is in dire need of help.

Unfortunately a conditional discharge or bind over or fine will not help him.

Reluctantly I sentence him to the maximum term of imprisonment which is six months.

"There he will have food and shelter and I strenuously recommend that the prison authorities put him into a programme during his incarceration to deal with his problem of substance abuse.'' EX-GOSLING'S EMPLOYEE FINED $800 CTS Ex-Gosling's employee fined $800 A former Gosling's employee was fined $800 for stealing more than $300 worth of liquor from the Somerset branch of the firm.

Oliver Simmons, 48, of Middle Road, Southampton, pleaded guilty on Friday to stealing a case of Smirnoff vodka and a case of Amstel beer on May 13 this year.

Acting Magistrate Archibald Warner heard that Simmons worked from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. that day and was watched by another employee as he put a box in a car.

Police prosecutor Sgt. Phil Taylor said Simmons was driven away by another man and Police were called in to investigate.

He was arrested the next day and taken to Somerset Police station where he gave a written statement.

Sgt. Taylor said Simmons told Police he stole the two cases, he was given a ride by a friend, and drank the alcohol with friends.

He declined to answer any questions from Police. Simmons lost his job at Gosling's.

Simmons, who was last convicted of a similar offence in 1985, told Mr. Warner: "I'm sorry. My wife runs a nursing home and we take care of old folks. My life has been turned around.'' Before sentencing Simmons Mr. Warner said he had taken into consideration his age, guilty plea, that he had lost his job, and his previous convictions, especially the length of time since his last dishonesty offence.

Mr. Warner gave Simmons until the end of November to pay the fine or face 30 days in prison.

PAIR ORDERED OFF THE ROAD CTS Pair ordered off the road A Government employee and a law student were both taken off the road for 12 months after appearing in Magistrates' Court on Friday.

Jose Tavares, 43, a labourer for the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, was stopped by Police while riding his motorbike along North Road in Hamilton Parish at about 10 p.m. on September 29.

He was ordered to stop after Police noticed him driving erratically. He was questioned and told the officers that he had had just two drinks. But when breathalised at Hamilton Police Station Tavares, from My Lord's Bay Drive, Hamilton Parish, registered a reading of 195 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood -- nearly two-and-a-half times the legal limit.

In a separate incident 23-year-old law student Terrence Wakely from Harrington Sound Road, Smith's, was stopped by Police in the early hours of October 3 while riding with a pillion passenger on Trimingham Hill.

Wakely told Police that he had had three beers but an alcoanalyser test showed that he was more than double the legal drink drive limit.

Both men were also fined $600 as well as being banned from all vehicles for 12 months.