One witness, Jocelyn Allsworth, gave evidence stating she and her friend had seen a motor-scooter pull into the supermarket and the rider fall off the scooter. They watched the store's security guard talk to the man, who was wearing an open-faced red helmet.
She said they waited for police, watching the man walk into Pak'N Save and then walk down Chapel St and enter Thirsty Liquor.
When asked in cross examination about whether it was the same man who walked into both stores, Ms Allsworth said it definitely was as he was wearing the same clothing; blue jeans, a jersey with a T-shirt on top of it and a red helmet.
"Unless he miraculously changed somehow, it was the same person ... I'm pretty positive it was him."
She admitted it was dark at the time but store lighting flooded the area.
The woman said she noted the red helmet was distinctive.
"It was an open-faced helmet. I haven't seen one like it for quite a long time."
Constable Dan Chu, who responded to calls from the security guard, said the witnesses pointed out Algie as the driver as did the security guard, who had stated to the officer that Algie smelled strongly of alcohol and appeared drunk when he entered the store.
Algie appeared drunk when he spoke to him, Mr Chu said.
"He was quite abrupt," he said. "I could tell he had been drinking and was drunk."
Algie denied being the driver and said that the scooter belonged to his neighbour, the officer said in evidence.
"He denied he drove. He said that he is a disqualified driver, so why would he be driving," he said.
Searching Algie, the officer found the keys to the scooter in his pockets. Algie blew an alcohol reading more than twice the legal limit and then returned a blood alcohol reading of 184 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. The current legal limit is 80mg but will soon drop to 50mg.
Defence lawyer Mr Blathwayt said there were "hundreds of thousands" of red helmets around the country and that the security guard gave a different description of the offender to the women, stating the man was wearing grey trousers and a grey shirt.
Judge Hasting said police had proven the case and convicted Algie on both counts.
He said the evidence of witnesses was credible as all three had seen the red helmet, the description was accurate as fading light could have distorted colours and police found keys to the scooter in Algie's pocket.
Judge Hastings remanded Algie at large for a pre-sentence report and sentencing on April 3.
