MINISTER of Justice and Legal Affairs William Marau has been fined $5000 for the charge of presence of alcohol in a person’s blood.

Principal Magistrate Augustine Aulanga told the Minister yesterday that as a legislator he should honour and uphold what he had legislated for vehicle users throughout the country.

He said Mr Marau is a Member of Parliament who participated in the making and passing of the Police and Transport Legislation (Amendment) (Alcohol testing) Act 2016 for public compliance and adherence.

“Instead, he dishonoured it,” Magistrate Aulanga said.

Magistrate Aulanga said such attitude displayed by him as a national leader undermines public confidence and will demean the general respect expected from the public towards our traffic laws and regulations.

“Being a minister for that noble ministry, he ought to know that this ministry is responsible for the administration of justice and matters relating to legal affairs of the country,” Magistrate Aulanga said.

“He, as the overall Administrative Head of the ministry should lead by example and act ethically by complying and adhering to our state law and regulation which by virtue of his portfolio, he looks after. Instead, he ignored that ministerial and public expectation and committed this traffic,” Magistrate Aulanga highlighted.

Mr Aulanga also said though he gave him full credit for his guilty plea, unfortunately he won’t treat him as a first-time offender since he has prior convictions before this Court in 2009.

“Despite the introduction of the breathalyser test, the number of cases for this offence continues to increase at an alarming rate. This, in my view, shows the ignorance of vehicle users to adhere or comply with traffic rules and regulations,” Magistrate Aulanga added.

Minister William Marau was charged for the offence committed on the night of March 4, 2017, when Kukum Traffic officers were conducting random breath test traffic checks along the Mendana Avenue Road in front of the Central Police Station.

Police said at about 9.48pm, they stopped a Grey Toyota RAV4 driven by the accused and pulled him at roadside for a breathalyser test. He voluntarily participated and following the preliminary test, police found the level of alcohol concentration present in his blood was 0.145 percent which exceeded the permitted level of 0.49 percent.

He was escorted to Central Police Station for the final breathalyser test where his final test result showed 0.132 percent of alcohol present in his blood.

Police Prosecutor Ambrose Motui prosecutes the case in court.