Fined $5,000 for birthday drinks

Russell Ragoonanan, 55, celebrated his birthday by drinking all day on Friday last and, at 3.30 pm, he drove into the compound of a supermarket in Marabella and treated himself to three more beers.

Yesterday, San Fernando Magistrate Lisa Singh-Phillip fined him $5,000. The alcohol content in his breath, when tested, revealed it was 85 mg. Prosecutor, Sgt Saunders, told the magistrate after Ragoonanan pleaded guilty yesterday, that PC Dario Ramlal saw Ragoonanan alight from the driver’s side of a vehicle at Queen Street, Marabella. He was staggering and could have barely stood upright.

The magistrate heard, when Ramlal asked Ragoonanan if he had been drinking, he replied, “Officer, I drinking and driving whole day. Is my birthday.” Singh-Phillip asked him how much he had to drink and he replied that he had drank about nine beers. And asked why he went into the grocery, the defendant confessed that he had three more.

Singh-Phillip ordered Ragoonanan to pay $1,000 of the fine by today and the balance by January 31.

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