SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - A 32-year-old Yellowknife man who told the RCMP he only had "one beer" and then tried to vomit in the back of the police car received a $1,000 fine and a one-year driving ban Jan. 25 in territorial court for refusing a breathalyzer test.

"In the future, I will never take that path again. Sorry," the man told Judge Christine Gagnon before being sentenced.

Crown prosecutor Danielle Vaillancourt told the court on May 1, at about 3:30 a.m., the Yellowknife RCMP noticed an orange Dodge van driving in an "overcautious manner." The officers finally pulled the man over on School Draw Avenue after the man spent an "extended period of time" at a stop sign with the left signal on before making the turn.

Vaillancourt said the officers became suspicious after watching the man fumble with his driver's licence as he handed it to them.

The officers also noticed he had red, bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and the odour of alcohol coming from his breath.

The man was asked if he'd been drinking. At first he said he had not been drinking, and then he said he had only consumed one beer, but this time slurred his words to the extent the officers could barely understand him.

They repeated the question again, and he replied he was "hung over," said Vaillancourt.

The man was arrested on the suspicion of impaired driving. As he was being escorted to the police car, he almost lost his balance and fell, and in the back seat of the car, the officers could hear the man trying to vomit, "but he was unable," said Vaillancourt.

At this point, he told the officers he'd been "drinking for seven days straight, and didn't feel well." Despite his remarks, he refused a breathalyzer demand at the detachment, she said.

Because the man has no previous criminal record, Vaillancourt asked for the minimum penalties of a $1,000 fine and a one-year driving ban.

Defence lawyer Charlene Doolittle explained her client's behaviour was "unusual and out of character for him" and that it will bother him "for life." She agreed with the Crown that the minimum penalties were appropriate.

Gagnon gave the man six months to pay the fine.

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