The dri­ver al­leged­ly in­volved in last week’s fa­tal ac­ci­dent in Pe­nal has been fined $10,000 and dis­qual­i­fied from dri­ving af­ter ap­pear­ing in court on a drunk dri­ving charge.

Mervyn Joseph plead­ed guilty on Tues­day to dri­ving un­der the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol, four days af­ter the ac­ci­dent that claimed the life of Bar­rack­pore labour­er Habib John. An­oth­er per­son, Ann Marie Co­dring­ton-Mitchell, a pen­sion­er, was al­so in­jured.

Po­lice re­ports stat­ed that a white Kia K2700 van struck the vic­tims as they walked along Rochard Road around 7.10 pm on Au­gust 8.

John was es­cort­ing Co­dring­ton-Mitchell home af­ter spend­ing time near Pla­tan­ite Trace when they were hit by the ve­hi­cle.

The 33-year-old dri­ver re­port­ed­ly failed the breathal­yser test. Siparia Mag­is­trate Alexan­der Prince gave Joseph three months to pay the fine or serve 24 months in prison. He was al­so dis­qual­i­fied from hold­ing or ob­tain­ing a dri­ver’s per­mit for three years.

The Mag­is­trate or­dered that his dri­ver’s per­mit be re­turned to the Li­cens­ing Au­thor­i­ty.

He was charged by Sgt Mon­segue.

Mean­while, an of­fi­cer told Guardian Me­dia that up­on com­ple­tion of fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tions, the file will be sent to the rel­e­vant of­fi­cials, who will then de­ter­mine whether Joseph will face charges re­lat­ing to the fa­tal ac­ci­dent or an in­quest. —Sascha Wil­son