A 36-year-old man was fined $1,500 and banned from the roads for 18 months yesterday after he was snared at a roadside breath test checkpoint.

Magistrates’ Court heard John Perinchief’s car was pulled over at a checkpoint on Crow Lane, near Hamilton. Officers suspected he had been drinking and questioned him.

Perinchief, from Pembroke, told them: “I had two Elephants.”

He failed a roadside breath test and was taken to Hamilton Police Station for a further test.

He registered 99 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. The legal limit is 80mg/100ml. The incident happened on April 19.

Perinchief pleaded with magistrate Maxanne Anderson to keep his licence because he had two jobs that required him to drive a car. Ms Anderson told Perinchief that he should have considered that before he drove while over the limit.

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