A Huntsville man has discovered that his habit of drinking and driving is becoming more and more expensive.

In Huntsville court recently, acting Crown attorney Christine McGoey stated that on March 3, 2008, police officers  sitting in a cruiser at the beer store parking lot in Huntsville saw a man, later identified as 43-year-old William Norman McDonald of Huntsville, make two trips from the store carrying beer and placing it into a pickup truck. When he drove away along King William Street, the officers followed him, court heard. McDonald was driving 65 km/h in a 50 km/h so the police signalled him to stop. He kept going and then sped up to 80 km/h in a 60 km/h zone. McDonald finally pulled over at Hwy 60. Court was told that police asked him about the alcohol they could smell on McDonald’s breath, and he told them he had consumed four beers over the day. Submitting to a roadside breath test, he blew a fail and was arrested, explained McGoey, adding the officers noticed he was unsteady on his feet when they searched him.

At the Huntsville detachment McDonald’s breath test readings were 119 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood and 126 mg of alcohol in 100 ml of blood.

At the Ontario Court of Justice in Huntsville recently, McDonald pleaded guilty to driving with a blood alcohol level over 80 mg.

“I’m very sorry for using improper judgment,” he told the court. “I’ll be paying for it for a long time.”

Referring to McDonald’s record, Justice John Evans noted he had paid a $500 fine for impaired driving in 1986 and a $1,000 fine in 1992. The judge fined him $1,500 plus a victim surcharge of $150. He is prohibited from driving for one year and is on probation for a year.