Court: 32-Year-Old Man Admits Multiple Charges

January 14, 2019

[Written by Don Burgess]

“Your behaviour, sir, is atrocious.”

Those words were spoken by Senior Magistrate Juan Wolffe to Fabio Barbosa, with the Senior Magistrate also telling the 32-year-old he was “the personification of why” Bermuda needs road sobriety checkpoints.

Mr Barbosa pleaded guilty to two counts of refusing a breath test and one count of driving while impaired. The three offences occurred between December 2017 and January 2019. The Pembroke man also admitted to two counts of driving without a licence.

Magistrate Wolffe told Mr Barbosa “You are the personification of the reason why the road sobriety checkpoints are necessary. Your behaviour is atrocious.

“To compound the problem, to make it more egregious, you had no driver’s licence.”

Mr Wolffe also called Mr Barbosa the “poster child for someone who should be locked up.”

“You have a problem in drinking alcohol and then getting in a vehicle and driving whilst impaired. On these three occasions, the rest of the unsuspecting public were lucky, sir, you didn’t cause a serious accident,” he said.

The Magistrate added to make it worse, Mr Barbosa was on three different vehicles.

“Somebody is lending you their bike, probably well-knowing, that you’re getting on the bike, and driving impaired” Mr Wolffe said. “Somebody is giving you their bike, and they should be in court if that is the case…that person should be in court if they lent you their bike or bikes so you can drive under the influence.”

Mr Barbosa was first caught by police in December 2017, on Southcote Road and admitted he had three or four beers.

He was caught again just eight days later on South Road in Devonshire at 12:35 am. Officers noticed his eyes were glazed and smelled of alcohol, but Mr Barbosa denied he had been drinking.

He was also caught in January 2019, at 2:40 am on Queen Street near Reid Street. He pulled off the street before reaching the road sobriety checkpoint and had difficulty putting the bike up on the kickstand. Mr Barbosa admitted to officers had had four drinks. He did not have a driver’s licence and did not agree to take a breath sample.

His lawyer said that Mr Barbosa is on a work permit and was concerned about him losing it if he was given a jail sentence, and the Senior Magistrate said, “I’m not worried about that. He jeopardised Bermudians on the road.”

The Magistrate ordered a drug and alcohol assessment to be completed on Mr Barbosa and for him to attend Drug Court. He also banned Mr Barbosa from driving all vehicles until further notice from the court.

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